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No. 45.
THE
SCRIPTURE GUIDE
TO
BAPTISM:
CONTAINING
A FAITHFUL CITATION OF ALL THE PASSAGES OP
THE NEW TESTAMENT WHICH RELATE
TO THIS ORDINANCE,
WITH
EXPLANATORY OBSERVATIONS ;
AXD ATTBXDEB BY
NUMEROUS EXTRACTS F R O ill fej?.* I N d'n ^ -VVRJITHns; ;
mi^itfi nn ^pptnp,% ; i : > ;
BY R. PENGLI^L.T>
FROM THE NINTH LONDON EDITION, REVISED AND IMPROVED BY THE AUTHOR.
Thpse were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the sckiptures daily, whether those things were so.— Acts xvii. 11.
Whatever pretends to exceed the direction of the Word may safely be rejected ; caunot safely be admitted.— Dr. Owen.
PUBLISHED BY THE
BAPTIST GENERAL. TRACT SOCIETY,
AT THEIR DEPOSITORY, No. 21, SOUTH FOURTH STREET.
18 3 7.
THENEW YOH
INTRODUCTION.
I DO not know that I can better introduce the following pamphlet to the reader than by stating the origin of it ; its reference to my own case and circumstances, he will kindly excuse.
From my earliest childhood, I was taught to say, that, " in my bap- tism,— I was made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven."* My instructers would readily admit, and in effect taught, the following sentiments, lately given to the world by different writers : —
One affirms — " With the water of our baptism, the grace of regene- ration, the seed of the Holy Ghost, the principle of a higher existence is committed to the soul ; it grows with us as an innate impression of our
being As long as the believer trusts to his baptism as the source of
spiritual life, all is well."f
Another adds — " On a topic so interesting, I might have well enlarged. I might have told you that only by baptism we are admitted into Christ's flock on earth ; by baptism we are adopted into his covenant, incorpo- rated into his church. . . .that in baptism all our sins are pardoned, and the Holy Ghost bestowed."^: And another — " Baptism brings its pri- vileges along with it — is a seal of the ic;p^ei:ra'n'; — flo<j's noV lofee iis etd' through the indisposition of the receiver^^<) ' \,",' '•' ", / '>'■>*>
These sentiments, as far as I receive'd them, were* very gratifying* ' I* seem to have been put, by the kindness of' r^^ p*arei\to an'd ."feponsors, into a situation of unspeakable advantages,^ an-l^ alcove ^ all, »il^^ heaven was secured, and I had nothing to fear in li^e or deatji. ' , , ' , , . Being, however, afterward brought un^jler ji; fjiit^ifiil .tfjin)? iJry, J ob-' served a most ASTOifisHiNo difference lHj?(fefe'3ii't'i6'.6faie\piei^4;s bf the pulpit and the sentiments I had been taught in childhood, as given above. Here I was taught ' that all mankind were by nature sinners, depraved, and guilty, — that unless they be brought to repent of sin, to believe in Christ, to seek and Jind mercy from God through the Saviour, they must inevitably perish !' — As to what was done for me in infancy, I was assured it profited me nothing. My excellent minister would not hesi- tate to appeal to his congregation, in the inquiries which recently ap- peared in a public paper : —
^' Is not the sponsorial part of the baptismal service a fragment of popery, without the shadow of a foundation in the Holy Scriptures 1
" Aje not thousands* of children, who show no signs whatever of spi- ritual regeneration, taught to repeat a deliberate falsehood, from week to week, when, according to the instructions of their catechism, they declare that at baptism they were made ' members of Christ, child- ren of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven V
<' Are not multitudes of young people brought to the rite of confirma-
♦ See the Church of England Catechism, and Baptism of Infanta.
t Mr. W. Harness, minister of St. Pancras' chapel, London, in a sermon oa Baptiavml Regeneration, pp. 135. 138.
t W. B. Knicjhi, Perpetual Curate of IVJaream, and Examining Chaplain to th« 4<ord Bishop of Llandatf, In a Letter on Baptism, p. 26,
8 In Adam Clark's Commentary, at the end of Mark.
61 3
4 INTRODUCTION.
tiofi, merely that they may renew the solemn farce which was performed by their sponsors at baptism ; and that they might take a vow which they never intended to fulfil ]"*
What these questions implied, and the preceding remarks expressed, appeared to me awfully serious; and the coNTUAniETT of sentiment which prevailed, and which the foregoing quotations exhibit, was ex- ceedingly perplexing. My highest and best interest for time and eternity was here involved. On the one hand, I was told that by my baptism " all was well," and on the other, that the ordinance, as observed upon me, was a " solemn farce !"
What should I do in this case ? Why this, I resolved, I would do : I would take a New Testament, and go through it, and mark down and distinguish in the margin, all those passages which related to baptis7n ,■ and when I had done so, I would read them all over in succession, as one chapter, with care and attention ; and as I knew this blessed book was the only original and divine authority on the subject, here, I in- fered, I should learn correctly what this ordinance did fur children — what was the office of sponsors — and how the ordinance sealed to me the blessing of the covenant.
To my surprise, the New Testament was entirely silent upon ALL these points ! I could not find a single passage relating to the bap- .tigirupf ijifajit^ — por^ one ^relating to sponsors — nor one about baptism Wingfn^ m^, jfnto'.tlTp foveijam/,; or sealing to me its blessings ! Every . passage* I 'cotjld firftl, vi'esqrjptp'e; of the persons baptized, either by John or the^discjple^ q^ .Qhrist, represented them as persons grown up, in- striictedj^hd Ufili ei^i\ig'fii,e\ gospel ,• nor could I find any passage relative to X\\Qti'br\n^ihg fh'ej.v' chUdren with them, or at any period to be bap- //cfV- .' J' ;*o Wtl? • alsG>,' -that all the commands and instructions given reapei^tiij^gihra^'tis^nieJ'itij-Qly related to its administration to believers, and not dne'inciud<!^d ihe lluf^ bf parents in securing, by this all-important ordinance, the spiritual and eternal well-being of their children !
Now, when I considered the unbounded benefits said to be consequent upon children's baptism, and the solemn manner in which I was required to repeat these statements in early life, as if they were the plainest sub- jects in Scripture, the reader may judge of my surprise in finding them entirely destitute of that sacred authority !
In the end, I was brought to believe that the institution was altered — that it was not noiu observed, where I was early instructed, as originally appointed of Christ. Yet to alter Christ's institutions appeared to me a VERT presuming act: it was derogatory to the authority of Christ, and a reflection on his wisdom ; and as I remembered how God mani- fested his displeasure against any alteration of what he had appointed, under the Old Testament, so I inferred he must be equally displeased with any alteration of the New Testament ordinances. A passage I met with in Matthew Henry's Exposition, respecting the conduct and awful fate of Aaron's sons in taking common fire, instead of fire from the altar, to burn incense, I deemed very impressive, and quite appropriate to this subject : —
* In " The Record," (a paper in llie Church of England interest.) for Novem- ber 30, IS^S, heailed, ' Questions fur the Consideration of the Ecclesiastical Authorities of the llealm.' See also Mr. Hyatt, cited at p. 63.
INTRODUCTION. 5
"Not being holy fire, it is called strange Jire ; and, though not expressly forbidden, it was crime enough that God ' commanded it not J For, (as Bishop Hall well observes here,) ' It is a dangerous thing, in the service of God, to decline from his own institutions ; we have to do with a God who is wise to prescribe his own worship, just to require what he has prescribed, and powehfui. to revenge what he has not prescribed.' Now that the laws concerning sacrifices were newly made, lest any should be tempted to think lightly of them, because they de- scended to many circumstances which seemed very minute, these that were the Jirst transgressors were thus punished for a warning to others, and to show how jealous God is in the matters of his worship. Being a holy God and sovereign Lord, he must always be worshipped exactly according to his own appointment ; and if any jest with him, it is at their peril." — On Lev. x.
My mind was considerably exercised upon this subject. * Not willing- ly,' I was constrained to say, ' would I jest with Christ's ordinances, or would I support any alteration of his institution. If I knew his will, I would observe and keep it ; for the time is coming when I must stand at his bar to give an account of the deeds done in the body ,- and if I was one of those \\\io altered his ordinances, or countenanced such a daring presumption, I should have cause to anticipate his divine displeasure.' With these impressions I came to the determination, that, at any risk, what the Scriptures taught on baptism I would endeavour to receive and hold, — that as Christ was to be my •>n1.Y'j^'P'>{: tft itie,' b;5*^ ^t)'h# , should be my onlt Guide upon this si^^j^ct." H.j^",<}bmn:f£in(l to ii^>.t$\ disciple is, " follow me ;" and to enable hini to 'do so he adc?ed,'**'Se'arfcI\ the Scriptures, for they are they that testify 'of; {nefV 'JRere'J^s&w the path of duty plainly marked out by the footstepfe ofl iry"! SaVivur, and instructions of his word; and his unbounded love 'and his infinite dig- nity rendered obedience to him unspeakably soJemn ai))i dvlightfiil.^'*
I resolved, also, to read whatever authors I coji.d /neb}; wi-th upon* this subject, and though I was soon brought to decide, and acted upon that decision, guided, I hope, by the word of God ; yet for several years there was not an author that fell in my way, whether treating of the subjects of baptism, or the mode of it, or the spiritual intention of the ordi- nance, but I felt disposed to examine his arguments. Nothing surprised me more than the strange diversity and opposition of sentiment which I observed between different very eminent writers. What one labored to establish, another as zealously exploded ; and I am thoroughly con- vinced that the only wat for an inquiring mind to obtain solid satis- faction upon the subgect is to lay aside all preconceived sentiments and prejudices, and to come, with a teachable spirit, to the fountain-head of information, — to take the New Testament and to go through it, allow- ing one passage to assist in the understanding of another, and here, on Heaven's authority, to form his opinions, and to come to a decision.
But those portions of Scripture which relate to this ordinance are in- terspersed throughout almost the whole of the New Testament, and for the use of an iNauiRER upon this subject, a Tract, containing a com- PLKTE Collection of all those passages, appeared to me exceedingly desirable. Being called, by the grace of Christ, to the all-important work of the ministry in the body of Christians, with which, from con-
6 INTRODUCTION.
Bcientious principles, upon giving up my early views in favor of infant baptism, I became united, I felt the want of such a pamphlet when referring inquirers to the divine and infallible source of information. Not finding such a work in existence, I resolved to prepare it. My first effort was well received ; and I afterwards enlarged it, by subjoining to each section of Scripture a few explanatory observations, and supported the sense I had given by extracts from the works of eminent ptedobap- tist writers. This work is now before the reader, and the following i» its arrangement.
PLAN AND CONTENTS. The various portions of Scripture relating to baptism, I have here
arranged as Three Chapters.
Chap. I. The several passages in the Four Gospels, divided into VII sections, as they occur ; page 9 to 27.
Chap. II. The several passages in the Acts of the Apostles, divided into IX sections, as so many successive instances of baptizing ; p. 27 to 44, Chap. III. The several passages in the Epistles, divided into III sec- tions, as they have special allusions ; p. 45 to 52.
To these Scriptures and their illustration,! have subjoined an APPEN- DIX, containing a biiief Examination, I. Of the common Reasons and Argurnen^s \iy wh\c|;i,^hp ^aptism of Infants is urged and defended, vi^.tft JO*. 'II*. Of litie/EyidfRCe in favor of Immersion as the Mode, • J. .7 1 fo. SO.; III.VOJ* the S)&?sign of the Great Head of the Church in the appointment .q^,th\s pjdinance, p. 80 to 81. And, finally, offering a few generjil 0/)Ufci.JjD3tar/i Observations upon the subject, p. 81 to 86.
ir'amf .riot cprisfflQVisr jhatjl have written a single sentence, but as the dictate* of 'sincrt-e' cfcmvicfihJn ; and, I hope, not one inconsistent with Christian candor. I love my brethren in the faith, notwithstanding upon this particular subject they may differ from me ; and though I have seen no small portion of sarcastic wit brought into the controversy, I have not once borrowed from that treasury ; my cause wanted not that auxiliary,
I take this opportunity af expressing the satisfaction I have felt in the kind recommendations which numerous ministers have given to this little work, not only in Britain, but in India, and especially in the United States of America, where it has gone through several large editions. But, most of all, my gratitude is due to the Author of all goodness, for the testimonies I have received that " the publication has been eminently useful to many of the disciples of Christ, in freeing their minds from the mists of error, engendered by the doctrines and commandments of men, and leading them into scriptural views of this important institution of the kingdom of heaven." (New Baptist Mis- ceflany, for 1828, p. 109.) I hope the alterations and additions made in the present edition will render it still more acceptable and u*eful.
Newcastle icpon Tyne, Jan. 1, 1836.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Passages in the Four Gospels.
PAOB
Sect. 1. The Mission, Preaching, and Baptizing of John the
Baptist, _-._.. 9
Of the Mode of John's Baptism, - - - 12
2. The Baptism of Jesus Christ, from the four Evan- gelists, ------- 16
Christ Baptizing, by his Diseiples, in Judea, 18
4. John's last Baptizing in ^non, - - - 20
5. References of Jesus Christ to John, his Baptism
and success, - - . ,t , ,- „ , - , ,^- , , , 2,1
6. Christ represents his SuflfGrings under t^e ^gart ,df ."
" a Baptism," ^- ^' ' ' > '^' '•' i • . ^1 ' \ ! ?,2
7. The Commission which our Lord ^^7^ his Apostles
about the Time of his A^xJc'nsi^ii'lipto Heaven, containing the formal IiistitaiiOii o^ Christian Baptism, - - ' ■^'•''.r'] .V ;'•-, , 23
Conclusion of the Four Gbsp.eis,'^^ .'V .* .-. * '! '7 26
CHAPTER II.
The Acts of the Apostles.
Sect. 1. The Baptism at the Feast of Pentecost, - 27
2. Philip Baptizing at Samaria, - - - 29
3. The Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch, - 31 Of the Mode of the Eunuch's Baptism, - 31
4. The Baptism of the Apostle Paul, - - 33
5. The Baptism of Cornelius and his Friends, 34
6. The Baptism of Lydia and her Household, - 36
7. The Baptism of the Philippian Jailer and House-
hold, 39
8. Paul Baptizing at Corinth, - - - 40 Reflection on the Baptism of Households, - 42
9. Certain Disciples at Ephesus baptized, - 43 Conclusion of the Acts, - - - 44
7
8 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III. The Epistles.
PAOB
Sect. 1 . Passages which contain an express Allusion to the
Mode and Spiritual Desig-n of Baptism, 45
2. Occasional mention of Baptism, - . 48
3. Baptism illustrated by Events recorded in the Old
Testament, -._.,.. 49
Conclusion of the New Testament, - - 51
Appendix, Part I.
On the Grounds of infant Baptism, its Rise and supposed Benefits, ----- 52
Appendix, Part II. On the Scriptural Mode of Baptism. - - 71
.'*', \/ '• '^fT^Jxmpf Part III.
'On tiie SpirVtud' bfesfgn of Baptism, - - 80
.'Cfncl^ddiijg- Obsfirvations, - - - - 81
O^jecfihftfirtore'iMusive Believers' Baptism, 81
' 'Rea^jl^Vis 'fbr f he Baptism of Believers only, 85
/ finai. ACl*di-s«s9 io the Reader, - - - 85
Appendix, Part IV.
Note on 1 Cor. vii. 14. Prepared by John L Dagg, 87
SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM,
&C. &C.
CHAPTER I.
PASSAGES IN THE FOUR GOSPELS. § I. The Mission, Preaching, and Baptizing of John the Baptist.
The first place of Scripture, where the ordinance of baptism is found, is in the account given of the ministry of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. The surname of " Baptist" was most probably given him because he was "sent to baptize" by Divine authority, and was the first so authorized and employed. As all the four evangelists have given some account of John, I shall unite the testimony of the four, and present it'to the reader in a continued relation.
Mark i. 1. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John i. 6, 7.
There was a man sent from God, whose name ivas John : the same came to bear witness, 'of the ^Li^ht,4ha.t Jtll t/htn through him might believe. Matt.Mii - 3. ' For tlas is.lre that was spoken of by the prophet Esai^^s-, sayii^g, TJie voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepa^"e yj^ihe w4y of the Lord, make his paths straight. , , , ' ]] '\' \[^ '^
Luke i. 16, 17. And many c^ th^.^cbildit^n^^Nf Xsrael shall he turn to the Lord their God^; And lie ohall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wis- dom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. iii. 1, 2. Now — the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
Matt. iii. 1. Li those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ; Luke iii. 3. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the bap- tism of repentance for the remission of sins ; Matt. iii. 2. And saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Acts xiii. 24. John preached the baptism of repent- ance to all the people of Israel ; xix. 4, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ .Tesus.
John i. 19 to 31. And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites to ask him, Who art 57
10 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [5S
thou ? He confessed, I am not the Christ. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. And they asked him. Why baptizest thou, if thou be not that Christ? John answered, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you — who, coming after me, is preferred before me. That he should be manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. 33. [For God] sent me to baptize with water.
Matt. iii. 5. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
Mark i. 4. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins ; 5. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
Luke iii. 12. Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him. Master, what shall we do ? 13. And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is 'iip.pbjntfed'.you.'- : • ^« • .;
«' j Miifu. iii.; 7. \feitt wh^jh". he saw many of the Pharisees and Saddiice«^.comc.to his baptism, he said unto them, O generatibii of yipers, syho hath warned you to flee from the wrath' to 'cotiiet '8. Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repeji/t'arnee : .9i"A'n(J vthmk not to say within yourselves. We ha-ve Abraham 'to our father: fori say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abra- ham. 11. I indeed baptize you with water unto repent- ance ; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with tire : 12. Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner ; but he will burn up the chaflf with unquenchable tire.
Christian Readkr : There are THREE INQUIRIES, in relation to the ordinance of baptism, upon which, I shall imagine, you are desirous of obtaining satisfaction of mind, purely deduced from the Scriptures ; namely, — -
I. Who are proper subjects oi Christian baptism, according to the authority of Christ, and the practice of his harbinger and apostles 1
II. By what mode should the ordinance be administered, according to the same authority and practice ]
591 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 11
III. What is the spiritual design of baptism, and in whom is that design realized 1
These three inquiries will be kept constantly in view in the following pages. In the foregoing section of Scriptures you have a full account of John the Baptist, with reference to his practice, in which you may notice, —
1. His mission was divine. He was " sent from God." He was raised up by the special purpose and power of God, and employed in a work entirely his own; succeeding to no one who had gone before him, and followed by no one in the same office. His instructions for his work he obtained by Divine revelation : — " The word of God came unto John," and thus his entire work was of God's immediate appoint- ment,
% The great object of his ministry ivas to "prepare the way of the Lord;" i. e. of Christ, who was immediately to follow him, according to the prediction of the prophets; Isa. xl. 3. Mai. iii. 1. This great design John was to accomplish, 1. By proclaiming repentance — impressing on the minds of his hearers their guilt before God ; the necessity of being sensible of it, and confessing it ; and thus, with con- trition of heart, " to turn to the Lord their God." 2. By announc- ing the immediate approach of the long-promised Messiah ; assuring the Jews that his "kingdom was at hand;" and, 3. By seriously charging and exhorting them to " Believe on him who should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." By these labors, attended with the blessing of heaven, he was " to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." And this was happily accomplished, inasmuch as the first disciples of Christ were previously disciples of John. John i. 35 — 47. It does not appear, therefore, that the design of John's mission could be realized in any but in adult persons, or persons come to the years of understanding ; none else could repent of sin ; none else could embrace the glad tidings of the coming Saviour, and thereby be " a people prepared" for the service of Christ; who, within one year, was to follow John, and receive the people so prepared.
3. His ministry was to be followed by the administration of the ordinance of baptism. His commission from heaven included this ordi- nance. Baptism, as a divine institution, was unknown in the church of God previous to the mission of John. But he informed his hearers, that the same God who sent him to prepare the way of the Lord, " sent him to baptize with water," John i. 33, and this too was preparatory to the ministry of Christ, as it was fitted and intended to teach the guilt of sin, and the penitent sinner's purification in the way which the gospel of Christ should bring more fully to light. Of that blessed work of purification baptism was an appropriate and impressive bmblem. In accordance with these remarks,* we have the excellent
* In this work I shall introduce numerous extracts from the writings of eminent PiEdobaptisl authors, who,thouch they practised differently from what is contended for in these pages ; yet, some upon one part of our inquiry, and some upon others, have fully s^ranled and allowed the Divine authority of what I shall endeavour to point out as having that authority, to the attention of the reader. As, however, I
12 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [60
Matthew Hen^ry. " Baptism with water made way for the mani- festing of Christ, as it supposed our corruption and filthiness, and signi- fied our cleansing by him, who is the Fountain opened" Of John's express commission from heaven for baptizing, Mr. Henry adds, " See what sure grounds John went upon in his ministry and baptism. He did not run without sending ; God sent him to baptize. He had a warrant from heaven for what he did. . . God gave him both his mission and his message ; both his credentials and instructions." Expos, on John i. 6—14, and 29—36.
4. The persons John baptized had received his ministry, and were professed penitents. One particular circumstance is expressly asserted by Matthew, and repeated again by Mark, descriptive of the persons whom John baptized, and by the latter it is asserted of " all" of them ; namely, that they confessed their sins. He had preached repent- ance— exhorted to repentance — and of the Pharisees and Sadducees demanded the " fruits of repentance ;" while he peremptorily rejected every plea they might urge, particularly that, in which they generally gloried, that they were the children of Abraham ; and hence in accord- ance with that repentance which John \h.\\s preached and demanded, " they were all baptized of him, confessing their sins." Thus his bap- tism is expressly called by Mark i. 4, by Luke iii. 3, and twice by Paul, Acts xiii. 24, and xix. 4, " the baptism of repentance." This being admitted, it will follow, that the persons, yea all the persons, whom John baptized, were those who had received and believed his MINISTRY ; and, as the " fruit" of their conviction, they openly pro- fessed repentance toward God, and faith in the approaching Saviour. Thus,
Mr. Erskine. "John's baptism was termed the baptism of repent- ance, and baptism to repenta7ice ,- because he required of all, whom he admitted to baptism, a profession of repentance, and exhorted them to such a conduct as would demonstrate their repentance genuine." In Booth's Pasdobap. Exam. Vol. II. p. 241. Ed. 2.
Mr. Scott. " It does not appear that any but adults were baptized by John . . . adult Jews, professing repentance and a disposition to become the Messiah's subjects, were the only persons whom John admitted to baptism." Commefit. on Matt. iii. 5, 6.
Mr. Burkitt. " John's baptism was the baptism of repentance, of which infants were incapable." Expos. Notes on Matt. xix. 13 — 15.
OF THE MODE OF JOHN'S BAPTISM.
My reader will, no doubt, be aware that the ordinance of baptism is administered THREE different ways, in diflerent countries, and by different bodies of Christians; namely, by dipping — pouring — and
shall make my work as brief aa possible, these extracts must necessarily be short, but care shall be taken to give the real meanins; of every writer in the passages cited. Their brevity can form no objection ; or the same objection might be mad© against passages cited by the apostles in the New Testament,
61] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 13
SPRINKLING. He will also be aware, that in whatever way the water be employed, it cannot take away sin. No spiritual benefit can be con- veyed by any one mode more than by another ; but, notwithstanding this, it is a serious and interesting question, which of these has divine AUTHORiTT 1 How did the harbinger of Christ, having God's com- jnand upon the subject, administer the ordinance 1 By which of these modes was Jesus baptized ? and his disciples by his sanction 1 There can be but one mode that has this divine authority ; a devi- ation from this, is a deviation from the revealed will of God, and can be nothing better than a mere human invention. What is that one authorized mode ] Will the Scriptures afford an inquiring mind satis- faction on this subject 1 No doubt ; they were intended for that pur- pose, on this as well as on every other subject, in which our obedience to God is required.
Turn then your eye, reader, from the diversified and often varying practices of men, to that unerring and unchangeable source of informa- tion, which, in these pages, we propose to examine. Two inquiries here suggest themselves : —
I. What does the word in the original language, employed by the Spirit of God to express this ordinance, signify 1 Does it express the action of dipping, pouring, or sprinkVcng ?
ir. What mode do the circumstances attending the ordinance most evidently favor 1
I. To express the action by which this ordinance is to be adminis- tered, the word so chosen is Ba.;TT/^a ; which our translators have not rendered into English by a verb of our own language expressive of the same action, but adopted the original Greek word, which with us is to baptize. To obtain therefore the se7ise of this word, we will turn to a Lexicon, where the word in question is explained.* The following is from the excellent Greek and English Lexicon of Dn. John Jones, which gives the plain sense of words without refining or accommo- dating : —
" BaTTTO), I dip ; — / dye, stain.
Bun-ri^ai, I plunge ,- I plunge in water, dip, baptize ; bury, over- whelm.
B^Trrt^cjuau, I am plunged ; plunge myself in sorrow ; ubmit to, suffer.
BuTrritrjuA, immersion, baptism ,- plunging in affliction.*^
To the unlearned reader it may be proper to observe, that the first of these words is the theme or root of the three following, and gives the primary idea of all ; the first sense of which is to dip. The second is the word chosen by inspiration, to express the action by which the ordinance is administered, to baptize, i. e. to plunge. The
* We mi^hthere call to our assistance lexicographers and other learned writers out of number; but I may with confidence affirm, that in citing one, we cite every competent authority on the subject ; for. in the proper and primary sense of the word baptize, learned men of all classes and countries are agreed, as I shall show iu the Appendix.
VOL. II. — 6 B
14 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [62
third is the same, in the passive form, used by our Lord respecting his sufferings, in Matt. xx. 22, 23, and Luke xii. 50. The last is the Scripture name of the ordinance, baptism ,- the first sense of which is immersion.
According to this authority, to baptize, is, to plunge, to plunge in water, to dip ,- and then, figuratively, to plunge or overwhelni, as in sorrow, suffering, or afil^iction ; and also, that baptism is immersion. I refer my reader to the Appendix, at the end of this pamphlet, (Part II.) for a confirmation of the sense here given ; and requesting him to associate tiiis sense with the words baptize and baptism, when they occur in future sections of Scripture, in order to observe whether that sense harmonizes with other statements connected with the ordinance, we pass on to notice
II. What mode do the circumstances attending the ordinance, as now administered by John, most evidently favor]
I. We should notice the place where John administered this ordi- nance. It was " the river Jordan." If, in reference to the people of Jerusalem, a situation where water might l>e easily obtained for sprink- ling or pouring was what John required, we read of our Lord at this place, directing the man that was born blind to go and " wash in the pool of Siloam ;" so we read of the " pool called Bethesda," and " the brook Cedron ;" all in or near Jerusalem, (and we read of others in the Old Testament) ; and, without doubt, at some of them the penitent Jews of that city and neighborhood might have received the ordinance, if such were the mode by which John administered it; and it cannot rea- sonably be imagined he would have required those persons to go the distance of several miles for the convenience of the river Jordan: more reasonable to suppose he would have baptized in every town and village where his ministry had its intended effect ; and, especially, at or near the metropolis. This strongly favors the opinion, that immersion was his mode. Thus,
Mb. Towi:nsox. " For what need vi^ould there have been of the Baptist's resorting to great confluxes of water, — were it not that the baptism — wrs to be performed by an immersion 1 A very little water, as we know it doth with us, sufficing for an effusion or sprinkling." In Booth's Pxdobap. Exam. Vol. I. p. 209. Ed. 2.
2. It is moreover affirmed, that not only was the river Jordan chosen by John for his baptism, but Matthew states, the people " were baptized of him IN Jordan," and Mark adds, "IN the hivkr of Jordan." The idea of going into the water of a river for the pur- pose of baptizing in it, by sprinkhng on the face, or pouring on the head, is too absurd to be entertained.
3. John also states himself, "I indeed baptize you (iv CJati,) that is, " isr water ;" not" with water," as it is rendered in the English author rized version. The passage was translated in water, in some of the early versions of the New Testament into our language. It is in water in the Vulgate, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions ; it is so rendered by Montanus, and recently, in our own country, by that pre-eminent scholar, G. Campbell, (Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen,) whose
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judicious and, in ray opinion, unanswerable note upon the place I will lay before my reader.
Mr. C ampb kll. " So inconsistent are the interpreters last mentioned [i. e. certain Protestant] that none of them have scrupled to render tv TOO Jc^(f3iv», in Jordan,- though nothing can be plainer than that, if there be any incongruity in the expression in water, this, in Jordan, must be equally incongruous. But they have seen that the preposition in could not be avoided there, without adopting a circumlocution — which would have made this deviation from the text too glaring. The word ^xTTTt^'jv, both in sacred authors and in classical, signifies to dip, to plunge, to immerse, and was rendered by Tertullian, the oldest of the Latin fathers, tingere ; the term used for deying cloth, which was by immersion. It is always construed suitably to this meaning ; thus it is, a vS'j.Ti, iv Tu JcgS-JiViu^' (that ia, in wafer, in the Jordan.) " But I should not lay much stress on the preposition &, which, answering to the Hebrew (bath), may denote with, as well as in, did not the WHOLE PHRASEOLOSY, in regard to this ceremony, concur in evinc- ing THE SAME THING. Accordingly, the baptized are said to arise, emerge, or ascend, ver. 16, and Acts viii. 39, from or out of the water. When, therefore, the Greek word [baptizo] is adopted, rather than translated into modern languages, the mode of construction ought to be preserved so far as may conduce to suggest its original import." Let the reader seriously consider what follows. " It is to be regretted that we have so much evidence that even good and learned men allow their judgments to be warped by the sentiments and curftoms of the sect which they prefer. The true partisan, of whatever denoraination,
ALWAYS INCLINES TO CORRECT THE DICTION OF THE SPIRIT BY THAT
OF THE PARTY." Four Gospels, Note oji Matt. iii. 11.
Tertullian, who lived within a century after the apostle John, men- tions expressly the people (quos Joannes in Jordane tinxit) "whom John dipped in Jordan." In Stennetfs Answer to Russen, p. 144.
Would it not be absurd to render the passage "John baptized luith the Jordan 1" and if, of necessity, it must be " in the Jordan," then it undeniably follows, it must be " in water ;" and baptism in water or m a river, wherever so observed throughout the world, is baptism by immersion. But I hope to satisfy any candid inquirer on this subject in the Appendix.
Mr. Hervky, when contending that r/ signifies in, adds, "I can prove it to have been in peaceable possession of this signification for more than two thousand years'^ '* Every one knows," he observes in another place, that with " is not the native, obvious, and literal mean- ing; rather a meaning swayed, influenced, moulded by the preceding or following word." Letters to Mr. Wesley, l.ci. X. and II.
LiGHTFooT AND Adam Clakke. "That the baptism of John was by plunging the body (after the same manner as the washing unclean persons — was) seems to a])pcar from those things which are related of him ; namely, that he baptized in Jordan, that he bap- tized in Enon, Ijccause there was much water thtre^^ S^c. In A. Clarke's Commentary, at the en<l of Mark,
16 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [64
Inference. If, then, I am a sincere inquirer after the will of God, and disposed to gather that will from what God has been pleased to reveal in his word for that purpose, I am constrained, from the foregoing Scriptures, to draw the following inference, namely, 'that John baptized none but those who gave him satisfactory evidence of being conscious of their sin and guilt before God, and whom he exhorted to repent and to believe in Jesus ; and as to the Mode, that he immersed them in water, in the Jordan.^
§ II. The Baptism of Jesus Christ, from the four Evangelists.
Our Lord's baptism we next find immediately following the foregoing account of Joiin. This place attaches to it infinite interest, by the infinite dignity of the Person baptized.
Matt. iii. 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jor- dan unto John to be baptized of him. 14. But John for- bade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? 15. And Jesus answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. Mark i. 9. [Thus] Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.
Matt. iii. 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. Mark i. 10. And — coming up out of the water, Luke iii. 21. and praying, the heaven was opened, 22, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son ; in thee I am well pleased. 23. And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age.
John i. 32. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. 29. 36. And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ! 34. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. 28. These things were done in Bethabara, where John was baptizing.
What, my pious reader, shall we say of the Persott baptized in this case ! What an honor is hereby attached to the ordinance, and con- sequently to all that duly follow the example of the Redeemer in it!
Let the man who slights and contemns this sacred institution, calling it "an useless, unmeaning ceremony, incapable of washing away sin, or of effecting any good," let him read these verses, and view the un-
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maculate Sox of God, who had " no sin" to wash away, proceeding from Galilee down to Jordan "to be baptized." Let him see the "Wis- dom of God" entering the streams, and bowing beneath them,
" The emblem of his fuiure grave !"
This, we should suppose, would induce a different sentiment of the ordinance, and silence every objection to the practice of it. And if a sight of CHRIST in Jordan had not that effect, let him hear and see the approbation of the FATHER and SPIRIT testified on this very occasion, and immediately upon his submission to this sacred rite. Never was an ordinance so honored ! Here is a dignity given to it infinitely exceeding any of the rites of the Old Testament. Each Per- son of the sacred TRINITY is specially present, and each Ditine Person gives it the testimony of his approbation ! The blessed Re- DEEMEit submits to be baptized; the Father, at the instant of his rising from the water, calls him his beloved Sou, in vihose conduct he was well pleased ,• and the Divine Spirit, at the same instant, de- scended upon him in a visible form ! 0, to have witnessed this scene, how overwhelming ! Nothing, since the commencement of time, has equalled in sublimity and glory this wonderful event.
Four things are to be noticed in this place. 1. The Reason why Christ would be baptized ; upon which, hear the celebrated and excellent
WiTsius. " Our Lord would be baptized, that he might conciliate authority to the baptism of John — that by his own example, he might commend and sanctify our baptism — that men might not be loath to come to the baptism of the Lord, seeing the Lord was not backward to come to the baptism of a sertrmt — that, by his baptism, he might represent the future condition both of himself and his followers ; first humble, then glorious ,- now mean and low, then glorious and exalted ; ihat represented by immersion, this by emersion — and, finally, to declare by his voluntary submission to baptism, that he would not delay the delivering up of himself to be immersed in the torrents of hell, yet with a certain faith and hope of emerging." — In Fasd. Exam. Vol, 1. page 147.
2. The Time chosen for fulfilling the promi?e of pouring forth the Spirit upon Christ. This is noticed and improved by the pious
DoDBRiDPE. "Jesus had no sin to wash away, yet he was bap- tized ; and God owned that ordinance so far as to make it the season of pouring forth the Spirit upon him. And where can we expect this sacred effusion, but in a conscientious and humble attendance upon divine appointments ?" Faryt. Expos. Improv. of the place.
3. The Langucrrc of Christ, in answer to John; which is thus explained by an esteemed commentator ;
Mu. Scott. Thus it becometh us, Sfc. " We never find that Jesus spake of himself in the plural number ; and it must therefore be allowed he meant John also, and all the servants of God. in a subordinate sense. It became Christ, as our surety and our example, perfectly to fuljil all righteousness ; it becomes us to walk in all the command- ments and ordinances of God, without exception, and to attend on 6* b3
18 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [[66
eveiy divine institution — as long as it continues in force. Thus far Christ's example is oulioatory." Commentary m Matt. iii. 13 — 15.
4. The Circumstance immediately following his baptism, namely, his " comiiig up OUT OF the water," which evidently implies that he went down into it, (as is expressly said of Philip and the eunuch. Acts viii, 38 ;) a circumstance required in no mode of baptism but immer- sion, and hence we infer that Jesus was buried or immersed in the water. To this mode of baptism our blessed Saviour plainly alludes when referring to his overwhelming sufferings, in Luke xii. 50, which we shall come to presently.
Campbell's Translation. "Jesus, being baptized, no sooner rose out of the water than heaven was opened to him." Four Gospeky Matt, iii, 16.
Doddridge's. " And after Jesus was baptized as soon as he ascended out of the water, behold, the heavens were opened unto him.'' In loco.
Mackxioht. Jesus *' submitted to be baptized, that is, buried under the water by John, and to be raised out of it again, as an emblem of his future death and resurrection." ApostoL Epis. Note on Rom. vi. 4.
Bishop Taylor. " The custom of the ancient churches was not sprinkling, but immersion ; in pursuance of the sense of the word in the commandment and the example of our blessed Saviour." In Paed. Exam. Vol. I. p. 199.
I never, my reader, can think of the baptism of this glorious and divine Person — the Son of God — the Lord from heaven — the righteous Judge of the last day — the Author of our salvation, and the Giver of eternal life, but with feelings of the deepest interest. We observe him here proceeding on his long journey, (for Nazareth was three days* journey from Jerusalem, and not less from Bethabara,) the object of which is, "to be baptized," We observe him admitting of no argu- ment against his submission to that rite^, and we ought never to forget how he associated his people, his followers, with himself, " thus it be- cometh us !" the servant as well as the Lord, the members as well as the Head, "to fulfil all" practical "righteousness;" all that God en- joins and i-eijuires. How strong is the obligation to realize what the Saviour hero intended ! Who will not concur in the pious decision of Mr. PolhillI "the pattern of Christ and the Apostles is more to me than all the human wisdom in the world." Nor can any one deny me the following
Inference. The Baptism of Jesus, as an Example, is fulfilled in the baptism of a Believer by Immersion, and in no other case.
§ III. Christ Baptizing, by his Disciples, in Judea.
This is the only mention of oiir Lord's baptizing, or of the disciples by his authority and direction, dnrin;? iiis corporeal presence with them; and, conse- quently, it claims our very serious attention.
John iii. 22. After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea ; and there he tarried with
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them and baptized. 26. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jor- dan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same bap- tizeth, and all men come to him. 27. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. 30. He must increase, but I must decrease. Chap. iv. 1. When, therefore, the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, 2. (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) 3. He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. — x. 40. And [he] went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized ; — 42. And many believed on him there.
The import of this passage is simply this, " Jesus went into the land of Judea and baptized certain disciples, — many hearing of him, and remembering what John had preached concerning him, flocked to him, — and soon it was generally known and said, as the happy fruit of his labors, ' That Jesus made and baptized more disciples thayi John ,-' upon which the Saviour departed, and went into Galilee. He again, however, visited this interesting place, and many more believed on him there."
The only thing to be noticed here, and it is certainly of some im- portance as to our first inqxiiry, is this, that Christ made disciples before he baptized them. He did not begin by baptizing, and afterwards instructing ; but he fiist taught them his gospel, and they believing and embracing his word, are thereby "made his disciples;" and hence they are said to " come to him," to conform to his commandments, and then, secondly, he baptized them. As this is all the Evangelists have recorded respecting Christ baptizing, through the whole of his ministry, this is, consequently, all in which the Practice of Christ is given for the guide of his people. What we are to understand by " disciples," or " making disciples," is thus described by
Mr. Owex. " By the disciples of Christ, I intend them, and them only, who profess faith in his person and doctrine, &c. This is the method of the gospel, that first men, by the preaching of it, be made DISCIPLES, or be brought unto faith in Christ, and then to be taught to do and observe whatever he commands." In Paed. Exam. Vol. II. p. 275, and 287.
Mn. Baxter. " A disciple and a Christian are all one." Ibid. p. 288.
Our LoKD, however, may be heard for himself, as to what is intended by his disciples : " Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Luke xiv. 27. Whatever, there- fore, may be said in favor of infant baptism, it cannot be said, that either Christ's Example or Practice affords it any support; and we shall presently come to his Command on the subject. But, in passing from noticing the Practice of Jesus, let me cite the words of one of the
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most eminent Psedobaptist Commentators on the Bible England has ever witnessed : — -
Mr. Scott. " The baptism of Jesus was, doubtless, of adults alone." Commentari/y on John iii. 22 — 24.
4 IV. John's last Baptizing, in JEnon.
The next passage we find on our subject, ia contained in few wordi. It is, how- ever, of powerful import relative to the Modh.
John iii. 23. And John also was baptizing in ^non, near to Salim, because there was much water there ; and they came and were baptized.
Of the Persons here alluded to, as baptized by the Harbinger of the Redeemer, nothing is said descriptive of them, except that " they came" to John, as the penitent Jews had before done at Jordan, and, like them, " were baptized ;" which fairly implies, that it was their own voluntary act thus to seek this holy rite; and if so, they must have been pre- viously instructed.
But, ill reference to our inquiry on the Mode of baptism, this passage is of great weight. We have here the Reason assigned, on account of which John chose the place where we now find him pursuing the object in which he is divinely employed. He is baptizing in ^non, " because there was MUCH WATER there." No candid Christian, I think, can object to the following
Inference. If John chose a place for the purpose of baptizing, on account of one circumstance, necessary for that ordinance, namely, " because there was much water there," then his Mode of baptism re- quired much water : But much water is not necessary for any Mode of baptism but Immersion, and hence, without doubt, that was his practice. The same inference was drawn, with as little doubt, by the illustrious Pawlobaptists following : —
Calvin. " From these words, John iii. 23, it may be inferred, that baptism was administered, by John and Christ, by plunging the whole body under water." In I'scd. Exam. Vol. I. p. 194.
WiiiTBT. " Ot/ C^jlta TroW'j. XV iKU\ Because there was much tvater there, in which their whole bodies might be dipped ; for in this manner o/i/y was the Jewish baptism performed, by a descent into the water, Acts viii. 38, and an ascent out of it, ver. 39, and a burial in it. Rom. vi. 3, 4. Colos. ii. 12." Annot. on the place. See Lightfoot and A. Clarke, at p. 16.
My reader scarcely need be told, that those who practise sprinkling never go to rivers, or places of much water, to administer the ordi- nance ; anil, if they should do so, the great qtiantitif of the water could not be assigned as the reason for choosing such places; because, in their Mode, a very small qiuintity only is required. Not much
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candor is necessary to admit the truth so plainly conveyed as in this
§ V. References of Jesus Christ to John, his Baptism, and Success.
As ihe passage in the preceding section contains the last record of John's bap- tizing, it appears proper to follow it by the testimony Jesus bore to his Harbinger and his labors.
Luke vii. 24. And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John. What went ye out into the wilderness for to see ? 26. A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. Matt. xi. 10. For this is he of whom it is writ- ten, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 1 1 . Verily I say unto you. Among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. John v. 35. He was a burning and a shining light.
Mark xi. 29. And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one question. 30. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me. 31. And they reasoned with themselves, saying. If we shall say. From heaven ; he will say, Why then did ye not be- lieve him ? 32. But if we shall say, Of men : (all the peo- ple will stone us : Luke xx. 6,) they feared the people ; for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. 33. And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell.
Luke vii. 29. And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the bap- tism of John. 30. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
Here observe, 1. The Redeemer, in the first of these passages, gives John a pre-eminence above all the servants of God, of the former dis- pensation ; not excepting Abraham, Moses, or Isaiah. His revelations were more signal ; his preaching of more vital importance, and his suc- cess greater. Thus was he more than a prophet.
* The answer that some have made that the words, " much water," should be " many waters," and refer to 7na7i!/ shallmo streams, is sufficiently answered by the learned Psedobaplist ExfX)3itor, who thus rentiers and explains the passage: —
Doddridge. "John was also at that time baptizing at ^non; and he parti- cularly chose that place, because there was a great qudntity of water there, which made it very convenient for his purpose." " Nothing, surely, can be more evident,
than that [_v6ara iroXAa] mantj waters, signifies a large quantity of mater, it beinji sometimes used for the Euphrates. Jer. li. 13. (Sentiuiguit.) To which, I suppose, there may be an allusion, Rev. xvii. 1. Compare Ezek. xliii. 2, and Rev. i. 15; xiv.
z; XIX. 6; whore the voire of many waters does plainly signify the roaring of a high sea." Fam. Erpos. Paraph., and Note on the Place.
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2. From the question which the Redeemer proposed to the Jews, Whether the baptism of John was from heaven or of men 1 in order to convict them of their guilt in treating John's labors as they had done ; it will evidently follow, that it was " From heaven." Had John's bap- tism been borrowed from Jewish proselyte baptism, it would have been of men, (for that is unknown in the word of God,) and then the ques- tion might have been answered without hesitation, and tim design of our Lord, in that case, could not have been realized.
3. The common people, who heard John's ministry, (the Saviour adds,) "justified God," i, e. approved of the Divine conduct in John's ministry and baptism ; and this they evinced in " being baptized with the baptism of John ;" while classes of higher religious repute, " the Pharisees and lawyers," in contempt of this messenger of God, and his message too, " rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him,.^' Here our Lord plainly indicates that the ordinance of Baptism was a part of " the counsel of God," i. e. his mind and will ; and, as far as this rite is contemned, so far the counsel of God is " rejected ;" and it is, emphatically, " against themselves" who thus oppose what God enjoins.
Inference. If John, who was hut a man, is to be so highly regarded, and his baptism considered "the counsel of God ;" so that neglect of it thus meets the marked disapprobation of our Kedeemer ; — how much more may the Divine indignation he expected on them who slight this sacred ordinance in that still more interesting form, in which we shall presently find it, — enjoined by Hi:m, whose name is written " King of kings, and Lord of lords !" Surely I may add, "If they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven /" Heb. xii. 25.
§ VI, Christ represents his Sufferings under the Figure of " a Baptis7n,"
Matt. XX. 22. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with ? They say unto him. We are able. 23. And he said unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with : but to sit on my rii^ht hand, and on my left, is not mine to g"ive, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.
Luke xii. 50. But I have a baptism to be baptized with ; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished !
Our Lord, in these affecting and impressive passages, is referring to the greatness of his approaching sufferings, — and, by a metaphor, he calls them " a Baptism.^' An interesting question from hence arises
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in reference to our second inquiry, Does sprinkling a little water on the face, or being totally immersed and overwhelmed in a large quan- tity, most appropriately exhibit an image of the severity of the suffer- ings of Christ 1 The following extracts will, I have no doubt, contain my reader's opinion c —
DoDnRiDGE thus paraphrases the places : " Are you able to drink of the bitter cup of which I am now about to drink so deep, and to be baptized with the baptism, and plunged into that sea of sufferings with which I am shortly to be baptized, and, as it were, overwhelmed for a time I" " I have, indeed, a most dreadful baptism to be baptized with ; and I know that I shall be shortly bathed, as it were, in blood, and plunged in the most overwhelming distress." Fam. Expos, on the places.
WiTsius. " Immersion into the water, is to be considered by us, as exhibiting that dreadful abyss of Divine justice, in which Christ, for our sins, was for a time, as it were, absorbed ; as in David, his type, he complains, Psalm Ixix. 2, I am come into deep waters, where the Jioods overjlow me." CEcon. of the Cov. L. IV. C. xvi. § 26.
Mr. James Hervkt expresses himself, on this subject, with great energy. "He longed, (beneficent, blessed BEING !) he longed for the fatal hour. He severely rebuked one of his disciples who would have dissuaded him from going as a volunteer to the cross. He was even straitened, under a kind of holy uneasiness, till the dreadful work was accomplished ; till he was baptized with the baptism of his sufferings, bathed in blood, and plunged in death !" Tlieron and Aspasio, Vol. II. Let. 7.
" Sir H. Trelawnet, under whose impressive ministry," says the late amiable Mr. Dore, of London, " my first religious feelings were invigorated, referring to those words of our Lord, exclaimed to this effect: 'Here, I must acknowledge, our Baptist brethren have the advantage : for our Redeemer's sufferings must not be compared to a few drops of water sprinkled on the face, for he w as plunged into dis- tress, and his soul was environed with sorrows.' " Sermons on Bap- tism, by J. Dore, p. 39.
Inference. If our Lord intended the ordinance of baptism to exhibit an image of the overwhelming sorrotvt of his soul, in the garden and on the cross, his intention is frustrated by the change of immersion into sprinkling ! And if this be admitted, (and it cannot be denied,) what devout Christian can think of this change but with deep regret !
§ Vn. THE COMMISSION
Which our Lord gave his Apostles about the time of his Ascension into Heaven, containing the formal Institution of Christian Baptism.
We have already seen that Baptism, as a New Testament ordinance, was insti- tutHd of God, and enjoined uyMn John as the herald and precursor of Christ. It is evident, also, that John administered it upon an a«<iniited or profp««pd acknow- ledgment of fiiith " in him who teas to come afior him." Acts xix. 4. But after our Redeemer had come, and finished his work, an alteration was ncces- flary in this particular circumstance. None on earth, but Jesus, cwuld make thai
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alteration ; and he, as Head antl Lord of the church, now does it ; requiring it to be administered from this hour, " In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This I consider as a renewed institution of the same sacred rite, altered only in its reference to the coming of Christ lo set up his king- dom. And, what adds greatly to the solemnity of it in thi.s renewed form, our Lord delayed its institution till his last mmnejits om earth, and then united it with his final parting and solemn charge, given by Matthew and Mark in the verses following.
Matt, xxviii. 16. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatso- ever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Mark xvi. 15. And he said unto them. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved ; but lie that believelh not, shall be damned. 19. So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
How solemn and interesting was this occasion ! The Redeemer had undergone the baptism of his sufferings, last described — he had been bathed in blood in the garden ! — he had sunk into death on the cross, under floods of wrath, due to mankind ! But now he is risen triumph- ant, and is about to ascend to his glory.
He had appointed his disciples to meet him on a mountain of Galilee, where he was to give them his last most solemn and important charge, contained in the verses above. The interesting hour is come ; we may be sure the disciples are eager to catch every word from their ascending Tjord, and that he would give them his directions in the plainest lan- guage possible.
He begins by encouraging their sorrowful minds, with a view of his supreme power in heaven and earth — in heaven, to give them the Holy Spirit; to employ the angels in their behalf ; and, finally, to bestow the kingdom of heaven upon them. So he had all power in earth, to gather his church out of all nations ; to subdue or restrain his enemies ; and to reign over and dwell with his people as Lord and King of Zion. Hence the Saviour gives them the " Commissiox" for preaching and baptizing, which you, ray reader, cannot too attentively consider. If you conceive there is any obscurity in the one Evangelist, the other will explain him ; and this explanation you will, no doubt, esteem pre- ferable to ten thousand criticisms. By uniting the words of both, they may be thus disposed: "Go ye, therefore, into all the luorld / " teach all nations, and preach the gospel to enery creature ; him that
73] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 25
" believefh baptize, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of *'the Holy Ghost, and he shall be saved ; but he that believeth not " shall be damned"
Our great Legislator, who only has right to enact laws for his church, to whom we must submit, and who will have nothing taken away from, or added to his word, Rev. xxii. 19, has here described to his apostles the person to whom they are to administer this his ordinance, namely, the BELIEVER ; the person who shall cordially believe the gospel which they shall preach. And if we allow him to have expressed his mind clearly and fully, he restricts the ordinance to the believer alone. He has given no direction to admit any other to it ; and who will dare to speak where He is silent 1 Who shall enlarge or extend the limits He has prescribed 1 or, who will dare to go beyond, or attempt to remove, the boundaries He has fixed and established ] Surely the mind of a true disciple recoils at the thought ! Let us now hear the remarks of some eminent Paedobaptist writers on these passages : —
Mr. Arc HI B ALB Hall, Predecessor of Mr. Waugh, of London. " How grand and awful is that weighty preface to the institution of Christian baptism ! Matt, xxviii. 18, 19. Who is that daring, inso- lent worm, that will presume to dispute the authority, or change the ordi- nances of HIM who is given to be head over all things to the church 1 The solemnity of this ordinance is complete ; and all the purposes of its institution are secured by the authority and blessing of Christ. His laws are not subject to any of those imperfections which are attendants of the best contrived systems among men, and frequently need expla- nations, amendments, and corrections. It is most dangerous and pre- sumptuous to add any ceremony, or to join any service, on any pre- tence, unto Heaven's appointment."* Gospel Worship, Vol. I. p. 325, 326.
Saurix. " In the primitive church, instruction preceded baptism ; agreeable to the order of Jesus Christ, Go, teach all nations, baptizing them,'' &c. In Paed. Exam. Vol. II. p. 274.
Mr. Baxter has a very forcible passage on the same place. " Go, disciple me all nations, baptizing them. As for those who say they
* Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, has given us a skeleton of a sprmon on this Com- mission of Christ, in which he proposed lo consider, "I. The authority he claimed, n. The commission he gave to his Apostles. 1. They were /o /eo'/j all nations. I. They were lo baptize their cmiverts in the name of the sacred Three." Then, he adils, "But though they first tauirht adults, and then baptized them, thby REVERSED thts order with respect to infants."
On readin? this Inst sentence, the inquirer with surprise misht ask, \Mio re- versed this order? The answer here is, the Apostles. Reversed what order? The answer is, the order of Jesus Christ; \first, to teach, and serond, lo b.-\puze.' Awful ihought ! that mortal worms shouhl presume to alter the institutions of the Lord of Glory ; yea, to reverse the order He ordains i
Here is a candid confession that the order of Jesus Christ is " reversed, with re. ^pect to infants." A fact, alas ! too plain to be denied.
With respect to the Apostles, however, the charge is not true. They never re. versed any order or appointment of Christ. He enjoined upon them, in his last ^•ords, to '-teach men to observe whatsoever he had commanded them;" and any adding or taking away, u> say nothing of reversing, he solemnly prohibited. Rev. xxii. 15, 19. The order of Christ is reversed, but it was not till the Apostles and primitive Disciples were long in the dust; as I shall show in the Appendix. VOL. II. — 7 C
26 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [74
are discipled by baptizing, and not before baptizing, they speak not the sense of the text ; nor that which is true or rational ; else, why should one be baptized more than another ? — This is not like some occasional historical mention of baptism ; but it is the very commission of Christ to his apostles, for preaching and baptizing ; and purposely expresseth their several works in their several places and order. Their first task is, by teaching, to make disciples, which are, by Mark, called believers. The second work is, to baptize them, Vvhereto is annexed the promise of their salvation. The third work is, to teach them all other things which are afterwards to be learned in the school of Christ. [Observe what follows.] To contemn this order, is to renounce all rules of order ; for where can we expect to find it, if not here ? I profess, my conscience is fully satisfied from this text, that it is one sort of faith, even saving, that MUST GO BEFORE BAi'TisJi ; and the profession whereof, the minis- ter must expect." In Pied. Exam. Vol. II. p. 270. See also other authors below.*
CONCLUSION OF THE FOUR GOSPELS.
The last Scriptures we cited, close the information which the Four Gospels afford us on the subject of Baptism. Before we pass to i\\e subsequent books, I beg to remind the reader, that we have had before us the practice of John; and the Example, Practice, and Command of our Lord Jesus Christ. As yet, we have not met with a single passage or word, which can fairly be interpreted as indicating that any persons should receive this ordinance, or are proper subjects for it, but those who have been first taught the gospel, and who profess to believe it.
But I am most anxious to impress on the attention of an inquirer the words of Jesus in the Commission, which we have just read. Re- member, reader, that this Jesus is to be our Judge at the last great and awful day ; and that He will not judge us according to the opinions or practices of men, but according to his own word. Upon this command of our Saviour, I would, therefore, beg briefly to add, and leave to the reader's deliberate meditations : —
\. That we have here the enactment of the Divine Law, in refer- ence to Baptism : and this Law we find dehvered in language the most solemn, and in circumstances the most interesting and affecting.
* Jerome, the most learned of all the Latin Fathers. "They_;?rs/ teach all the nations; then ichen they are taught, they I aptize them with water; for it cannot he tiiat the body should receive the sacrament of baptism, unless the soul has be- fore received the true faith." In Gale's R<Jle<tions on Wall, p. 319.
Poole's Continuator.s : " Go ye, therefore, cnid teach all ?wtions. The Greek is, make disn'ples all nations; but that must be first liy preaching and instructing them ; and Mark expounds it. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to everi/ creature; that is, to every reasonable creature capable of hearing and re- ceivmg it. I cannot be of their mind who think that persons may be baptized before they be taught: we want precedents of any such baptisms in Scripture." Annot. in loc.
Calvin. "Because Christ requires teaching before baptizing, and will hava believers only admitted to baptism, baptism does not seem to be rightly adminis- tered, except faith precede." /w Pad. Exam. Vol. II. p. 272.
75] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 27
2. That this Law of Jesus is not like human laws, which admit of alterations or amendments. None but Jesus has authority to alter : and, coming from the Fountain of heavenly Wisdom, who will presume to improve upon his appointment 1 And
3. This Law is as delightful to the mind of a Christian, os it is so- lemn. The words, " baptizing them iiito the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," imply a public recognition of the glorious change •which has taken place in the spiritual circumstances of true converts, in their having passed from the family of sin and Satan, into the family of the Tki-une God ! A change, not of the ordinance, but of the power and grace of God.
We now pass on to the Acts of the Apostles. Here we have an his- torical relation of the labors of the Apostles, for above thirty years after the ascension of Christ ; and here we shall find the baptism of many thousands of persons. If we have misunderstood the will of Christ on this subject, the Apostles sukelt did xot, and their obedience to his command will correct our error ; but if, on the contrary, we have rightly interpreted his will, their obedience will confirm our opinion.
CHAPTER IL
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
"The penman of this Scripture," the Assembly of Divines, in their argument to it, assures us, " was Luire the Evangelist, (as appears from the first words of it,) for the most part an eye-witness to the things he records, bein» constanily a fellow- laborer with Paul. His purpose," they add, "in writing this narrative was, as he intimates in his first preface, that the Church might have the certain knowledi^e of Christ, his gospel, ami kingdom ; that our faith might not be built on the uncertain reports of pretenders to truth." Hence, admitting the writer to be a faithful and pious historian, and writing purposely for the direction of the Church of Christ in all following ages ; and, above all, under the influence of the Spirit of God, we may safely rely, not only on the accuracy of the accounts, but on the fulness and suf- ficiency of the information to answer the professed purpose.
We have here, on infliUible record, NINE INSTANCES of the administration of baptism, which we will examine in their own order.
§ L The Baptism at the Feast of Pentecost.
On this memorable occasion, which was but ten days from the ascension of Christ, when the Apostles and Disciples were together at Jerusalem, it pleased God to accotn[)lish the promise of sending them the Holy Ghost. By his miracu- lous power they were enabled to sppak in dilferent languages to the multitude then assembled at Jerusalem from different nations : so that every one heard, in his oicn tongue, the irowJerfnl xcorks of God. Peter delivers to the multitude an impressive discourse, in which he charged the Jews with having crucified the Lord of glory; but added, that God had raised him from the dead, and exalted him to his right hand, as the only Lord and Christ. Upon this follow the verses relating to the ordinance, and descriptive of the subjects of it.
Acts ii. 37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? 38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized
28 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [7Q
every one of you in tlie name of Jesus Christ, for the re- mission of sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost: 39. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
41. 'J'hen they that gladly received his word, were bap- tized ; and the same day there were added U7ito them about three thousand souls. 42. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers ; 47. Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Here we must observe how the apostle Peter obeys his Lord's direc- tion in the Commission. He begins by preaching, and never men- tions a word about baptism, till he evidently found some of his hearers answering the character, " he that believeth." Hence, the persons who were baptized are thus described, — 1. Their hearts were deeply pene- trated by the truth they heard, so that they cried, What shall we do ? 2. They are exhorted to repent of their sins. 3. They at length " GLADLY RECEIVED THE w^oiiD," and thcrcon were baptized, and added to the church. 4. They afterward continued steadfast in the doctrine of the gospel, and in the practice of its duties. Not a word of this will apply to infants.
There is, however, one clause in the 39th verse of the above scrip- tures, " The promise is to you, and to your children," which is com- monly urged in favor of infant baptism ; as if the apostle alluded to some promise, on the ground of which, infant children were deemed proper subjects of Christian baptism. To answer which, let the three following things be considered : —
1. The promise, to which the apostle alludes, hns no relation to /)?- fant children, it being the promise of the gift of t!io Holy Ghost, joined with its eflects, of which infants are incapable. My reader will observe that the people, on this occasion, were astonished at the effects produced by the gift of the Spirit. The apostle assures them, verses 16 — 18, that it was the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel ; which prophecy is thus expressed, chap. ii. 28 : " / ivill pour out mi/ Spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy," &c. The apostle having delivered an impressive discourse, observing his hearers deeply affected and amazed at the gifts of the Spirit, in order to turn their amazement into hope and joy, refei-s them a second time to this promise, and to their own interest in it, in the following words, ver. 38, 39, " Repent, &c. and you [yourselves] shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; FOR [by this I assure you of it] the promise is to you and to your children." Now, as the gift of the Spirit, with his miraculous powers, is the object of the promise, and, as infant cliildren are incapable, of that gift, children in infancy cannot be intended.. Thus,
77] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 29
WHrrBT, " These words wUl not prove a right of infants to receive baptism ; the promise here being that only of the Holy Ghost, mentioned in verses 16, 17, 18, and so relating only to the times of the nAraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost, and to those persons who, by age, were capable of these extraordinary gifts." Annot. on the place.
Doddridge. *' TAe promise is to you and to your children. Considering that the gift of the Spirit had been mentioned just before, it seems most natural to interpret this as a reference to that passage in Joel, which had been so largely recited above, ver. 17, &c. where God promises the elTusion of the Spirit, 07i their sons and their daughters" F^m. Expos. Note on the place.
3. The word, in the original, ratv^, rendered children, signifies pos- terity,- and does not necessarily imply infancy.
Hammond. " If any have made use of that very unconcludent argument [referring to this passage, Acts ii. 39,] I have nothing to say in defence of them. — The word children there, is really the posterity of the Jews, and not peculiarly their infant children." Works, Vol. I. p. 490.
LiMBoncH, a learned divine of Amsterdam. "By tvivu. the apos- tle understands, not infants, but posterity ; in which signification the word occurs in many places of the New Testament ; see, among others, John viii. 39. [If ye were Abraharri's childuex, ye would do the works of Abraham.] Whence it appears, that the argument which is very commonly taken from this passage, for the baptism of infants, is of s^o FORCE, and good for nothing." Comment, in loc.
3. The words of the apostle immediately following, explain his own meaning in the most decisive terms : '• The promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar oft', even to as many as the Lord our God shall call," — ' to as many of you and your children, and the Gentiles afar off, as God should call by his word and Spirit to this great privilege,'
Matthew Henry. " To this general, the following Umitation must refer, even as many of them, as many particular persons in each nation, as the Lord our God shall call effectually into the fellowship of Jesus Christ." Expos, of the place.
Inference. From the whole, it appears most evident, that none were, in this case, encouraged to hope for Christian baptism, but such ■as gave evidence of being called effectually by grace ; and none were, IN FACT, baptized, but such as " gladly received the word.'' So far, the word of God is our plain guide.
§ n. Philip baptizing at Samaria.
Acts viii. 5. Then Philip went down to the city of Sa- maria, and preached Christ unto them. 6. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip
30 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [79
spake, hearing, and seeing the miracles which he did. 8. And there was great joy in the city.
12. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, tliey were baptized, both men and women. 13. Then Simon himself believed also ; and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
In this instance, as in the former, the commission of Christ is lite- rally fulfilled. Philip began his work by preaching Christ to them ; and when they had heard the doctrines and saw the miracles, they wero filled with joy. Not a word about baptizing, till some of the peoplft " believed'^ the things concerning Jesus Christ ; then " they were hap tized, both men and women."
Now, if it were the will of Christ that infants should be baptized, and it were true that the Apostles, (like Psedobaptist Missionaries among the Heathen,* ) were accustomed to baptize children together with the parents; then, \i any of those "men and women" at Samaria had children, (which surely is highly probable,) Philip must have bap- tized them : but, had he baptized men, women, and children, is it to be imagined that the inspired historian, writing, (as he says,) " of all that Jesus began to do and to teach," and " having had perfect understand- ing of a// things from the very first;" and his avowed design being that his reader "might know the certainty of things;" is it to he imagined that he tuoiihl particularize thetux), out of the three descriptions of the baptized, and omit the third? This I conceive impossible; and there- fore draw this
Inference. When the Evangelist states, " they were baptized, both men and women," had infants also been baptized, he must have added, to have completed the record of the circumstance, " and children ;" but not making that nalural and necessary addition, I infer, that men and women only were baptized ; and that no infants received the ordinance with them ; therefore, that the practice at that time did not exist.
* In ihe accnunis we aroofipn receiving from Psedobaptist Missionaries among the hf^allien, our brethren nainrally inform i)S of the children, as well as ihe adults, Ihcy baptize. For example, in the ^- Missiirnari/ Register^' for the year 1821, at page 19, a Report from South Africa, stales—" During the year 1819, 20 adults and 21 children were baptized " At pnsp 293, a Missionary in Western Africa, states — " September 3d, Sunday— I preached, &c. and then baptized 23 adults and 3 in- fants." Patre 294, Nov. 29ih,— "On the first Sunday of this month I baptized 34 adults and llieir children; 48 in all."
Rev. C. Mault writes from A'af^erroil, East Indies, in March, 1826: "Last month I baptized ') adults and 4 children." Rev. C. Bartf writes from Hnahine, South- Sea Islands, June 5, 1S25, "30 were added to the church durinsr our visit, and a nuiTiber baptized. Among those baptized were 16 infants." — Missionary Chroni- cle, for Novonber, 1826.
Are not such accounts quite nalural where infant baptism prevails ? And why IB there a perfect silence throughout the history of apostolical labors on ihiB sul)- ject 1 Their practice surely was not the same.
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§ III. The Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch.
The eunuch described in this chapter was a person of hi^h authority in the kingdom of Ethiopia, but it would seem a proselyte to the Jewish religion. He is here returning from Jerusalem. Philip is directed to meet him in his way. He found the eunuch reading, as he proceeded in his chariot, the prophet Tsaiah, chap, liii. 7. " He was led as a sheep to the slaughter," &c. He is desirous that Philip should explain to him. Whether the prophet, in that place, spalce of himself or of some oiher? and he took him up into his chariot for that purpose : upon which the Evangelist adds:
Acts viii. 35. Then Philip opened his mouth and be- gan at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. 36. And as they went on their way, they came unto a cer- tain water : and the eunuch said. See, here is water ; what doth hinder me to be baptized ? 37. And Philip said. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered, and said, 1 believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still ; and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch ; and he baptized him. 39. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more : and he went on his way rejoicing.
My reader will not need to be reminded of the Commission of his Redeemer, alter perusing these verses. We have here a plain example of the practice of the apostlee:, before they admitted a person to bap- tism. Philip might have deemed the Eunuch, after having heard the gospel, a proper subject for baptism, by being directed from heaven to teach him, — he might have inferred it also, from his sincere request of it ; yet he does not, he dares not, baptize him, until he openly profess to " believe xcith all his heart ,•" remembering, no doubt, that Christ had appointed the ordinance for such, and for such only. Nothing can demonstrate more clearly than this, that a declaration of faits was
IXDISPEXSABLT REQ,UIRED PREVIOUS TO BAPTISM.*
OF THE MODE OF THE EUNUCH'S BAPTISM.
We have, in this case, the circumstances attending the administra- tion of baptism more minutely described than in any other instance re- corded in the New Testament. The reader is requested to observe the following things : —
* Those who contend, that servants and children were all baptized in those days, with, and on account of, their masters and parents, would find it difficult to support their hyp<Jthesi3 in this case. It is the greatest absurdity to supiwae thai Philip would admit the eunuch's servants to baptism, without any profession, or even instruction, when he would object to the pious master, after he requested it, unless he was able to give a frank and open profession of faith in Christ. But he baptized none but the eunuch ; and, therefore, we may safely conclude, the apos- tles had " no such custom, neither the churches of God."
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1. If sprinkliyig or pouring were the mode of baptism ordained by Christ, and practised by the apostles, we are assured, by the best autho- rity, that travellers through those deserts " never omitted" to furnish themselves with vessels of water for their journeys ; that this provision was "absolutely necessary;" and, if so, the eunuch had all that was required for the ordinance, without ivuiting till they came to a place of water. See Doddridge, as presently cited, and Shaw's Travels, as referred to by him.
2. We are here, however, informed, verse 36, that they proceeded on their journey till "they came" (rr/, ad) "unto a certain water." And it appears that it was the sight of this place of water, that sug- gested to the eunuch his immediate submission to the ordinance. "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" How unmeaning would this be if he had the requisite water before !
3. If we admit that the eunuch was not previously provided with water, noiu when they were "come to a water," it would have been easy, and natural to be expected, for one of the attendants to have con- veyed to him as much water as was required, without his, or Philip's, proceeding farther. But, though " he commanded the chariot to stand still," no command is given upon this point, — of bringing water to him. But,
4. Leaving the chariot, verse 38, " they went down INTO the water ;" («;? to vJa>^, in aquam.) Here the reader will remark. It was not sufficient to come to the water, (which we are often told is all that the original means,) for this they had done before ; but here is a second circumstance, — after they had come to it, they went down into it.
5. The inspired historian also adds, that it was not the eunuch alone that went into the water, but " they went down both ;" and this is repeated again, as if to make quibbling or doubting on this subject im- possible, " both Philip and the eunuch." Such was the mode of bap- tism, as now established by the Son of God, that it could not, in this case, be administered unless Philip attended the eunuch into the water. And
6. While in this situation, both of them in the water and surrounded therewith, " he baptized him ;" that is, if the word be translated, " he immersed him," in the name of the Tri-une Jehovah. For this solemn act, the circumstances before noticed were necessary, but for any other mode they would be absurd.
7. The sacred rite being performed, it is lastly added, " when they were come up, {tx. tou CJ-mc) OUT OF the water," they were parted asunder ; probably to meet no more till they should enter the presence of Him to whom they now rendered this act of prompt and cheerful obedience.
It is not easy to imagine how the mode of this sacred ordinance could be more minutely described. That we have here an example of Immersion, is allowed by the learned and candid of all denominations.
Mr. Towerson. " For what need would there have been of — Philip and the eunuch going down INTO this [water] were it not that the baptism — was to be performed by immersion, a very little water, as wo
81] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 33
know it doth with us, sufficing for an effusion or sprinkhng." In Psed. Exam. Vol. I. p. 209.
Calvix, in his Comment on this place, observes, " Here we per- ceive how baptism was administered among the ancients, for they immersed the whole body in water." Rid. p. 194.
DoDBRinGE. " Tkei/ both went down to the loater. Consider- ing how frequently bathing was used in these hot countries, it is not to be wondered that baptism was generally administered by immersion, though I see no proof that it was essential to the institution. It would be very unnatural to suppose, that they went down to the water merely that Philip might take up a little water in his hand to pour on the eu- nuch. A person of his dignity had, no doubt, many vessels in his bag- gage, on such a journey through a desert country ; a precaution abso- lutely necessary for travellers in those parts, and never omi^tted by them. — See Shaw's Travels, Preface, p. 4." Fam. Expos. Note in loc. See numerous other authors in Booth's Peed. Exam. Vol. I. p. 191 to 224.
Inference. If I find one sufficient proof of the mode of baptism in the days of the apostles, whatever that mode may be, I infer that I have ascertained what was their invariable practice. Because it cannot be imagined that the apostles (having probably witnessed, and certainly knowing well, the mode by which the Lord Jesus was baptized, and having all received the same i77structio7is from their Lord and Master,) could be divided either in sentiment or practice. And if immersion be proved in one case, and from thence it be granted that Jesus was thus baptized, and that He coivimanded the ordinance thus to be adminis- tered, would not the amiable and pious Doddridge, who grants above, " baptism was generally administered by immersion," allow me to infer, (from the authority of Christ's example and command.) that this mode is "essential to the institution 1"' Here I have an instance of immer- sion, and from this I am authorized to conclude, and I do it with the utmost confidence and satisfaction of mind, that immersiox was what Christ ordained, and his obedient apostles and disciples i>'^yAHiA- BLY PRACTISED ; and, consequently, any departure from this practice, \:i a departure from the revealed will of Christ ,- and such an act can be viewed in no other light than an act of rebellion against his Divine Authority.
§ IV. The Baptism of the Apostle Paul.
Saul, while breathing out ihroaleninjis against the disciples of Christ, is me!, in his career of persecution, by the Lord himself, at whose exceeilimic j-'lory he falls prostrate on the ground. Ananias, a devout disciple, is directed of God to go to him, and teach him wliat he is to do; and for his encouragement in visitinii the persecutor, he is informed that Saul was prai/ifig, and that God had made him a chosen vessel to himself
Acts ix. 17. And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house ; and putting his hands on him, said, Bro- ther Saul, the Lord, eveii Jesvis that appeared unto thee in
34 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [82
the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Chap. xxii. 14. And he said, The God of our fathers had chosen thee, that thou shouldst know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldst hear the voice of his mouth. 15. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. 16. And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Chap. ix. 18. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales ; and he re- ceived sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
The promptitude of Ananias in baptizing Saul, * who also is called Paul,' as soon as he had received the message from his Saviour, and the restoration of his sight, shows how strictly this ordinance was observed in the days of the apostles; and, consequently, how it should be olv served to the end of time. Paul is exhorted to arise, and be baptized, and wash away his sijis, <^c. He was to arise, and yield obedience to the command of Christ, in baptism, and, at the same time that his body received the washing of water, he was to call on the name of the Lord, that his soul might be washed and purified by being, through faith, bathed in the " fountain opened for sin." This spiritual purification, immersion in water would strikingly represent. Thus the pious poet,
CowpER.— " Thpre is a fountain fiU'd with blood, Drawn from Immanupl's veins: And sinners phnig\i beneath that flood, Lose all ihoir guilty stains."
In this instance, we have the spiniTUAx, desigk of the ordinance very plainly referred to. " The meaning is not," says an excellent writer, " as if remission of sins were obtained by baptism ; but that, by means of the ordinance, they might be led to the suiferings, death, and bloodshed of Christ represented in it."
All our three inquiries are answered in the baptism of this illustrious man. 1. Respecting the Person to be baptized, — Paul was a believer in Christ. 2. To the Mode, — he himself refers when speaking of his baptism, and that of others, comparing it to a burial ; " Therefore we are buried with him by baptism." Rom. vi. 4. And, 3. The Spi- ritual Design is to represent a washing away of sin, obtained in " calling on the name of the Lord."
§ V. The Baptism of Cornelius and ?iis Friends.
The next instance records the baptism of the first Gentiles received into tha Christian Church. Cornelius was " a devout man, and ono that feared God, with all his house." He is directed fmm Heaven to send for Peter the apostle; and against his coming, he called together his kinsmen and near friends. The apoetl« having taught them the leading doctrines of the Gospel, concludes bv repeating what Christ had commissiened his aposiles to do as their first and chief work, an3
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the testimony of the prophets concerning him, in the two first verses below; after which we have the ordinance in question.
Acts X. 42. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and the dead. 43. To him gave all the prophets witness, that, through his name, whosoever believeth in him, shall receive remission of sins.
44. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. 45. And they of the circumcision which believed, were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 46. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, 47. Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we ? 48. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
The order of the commission is here also observed. Peter began by preaching ,- and never a word of baptism is found, till the people had heard the gospel, and had given certain evidences of their conversion. Then, and not till then, Peter pleads for their baptism ; and, what should be particularly observed, he pleads for it upon the ground of their being, most evidently, true believers, and as having received the Holy Ghost. His language, in verse 47, implies that, if they did not appear to be regenerate persons, any one might object to their baptism ; but, as they had given evidences that could not be disputed, he infers, no one could deny the propriety of their being baptized. Hence, they wore converts to the faith of Christ. Accordingly,
Mr. Holland had infallible authority for his observation. " In the first plantation of Christianity among the Gentiles, such only as were of full age, after they were instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, were admitted to baptism." In WaWs Hist. Inf. Bap. Vol. II. c. ii. § 14.
As to the manner by which these persons were baptized, nothing is said of it, by the sacred historian, beyond the simple fact. It has been suggested, however, that Peter, by the words, " Can any man forbid water," intimates that he required a little water to be brought to him, in a cup or basin, for the purpose of sprinkling ;* but the apostle neither
* If this suggestion were a fact, it is highly improbable that Peter, receiving a cup of water, wouhl command others to ba|)lizp, as he might himself administer in the same lime that he was jiiviag the instructions toothers; and I should certainly think he would prefer doing so on so iiiterpsiing an occasion, when the first fruits of llie Gentile world were to be received into the church. Instead of this, hw assigns that office to some other pei-son. To mo, the idea of any man (servant or
36 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [84
Speaks of little nor much water, nor about bringing it, but simply of water, and, no doubt, he intended as much as the ordinance required. It is most improper to form conjectures upon inconclusive statements of Scripture, against that which, by other Scriptures, is evidently con- firmed and established. When persons are said to be baptized, we are bound to infer that they were baptized according to the Pattern and Authority of Christ. This, I conclude, was the case in this, and in every other instance.
§ VI. The Baptism of Lydia and her Household.
The three following instances, as they relate to " /loi/se/ioMs," are commonly urged in favor of infant baptism; and, indeed, as being the principal support of that practice in the New Testament. The reader will, therefore, the more parti- cularly examine the Scriptures below in reference to the persons that constituted ihese households, and if he find recorded the baptism of one infant, or any thing in the text which evidently indicates it, he will consider the jxiint as settled for ever in favor of infant baptism ; but if the text does not contain such an indication of infants, but describes the baptized households as consisting of persons arrived at the years of understanding, and so capable oi hearing and believing the gos- pel,—a^nA especially if what is recorded implies that they actually did /icar and believe, then it must be granted that adult and believers' baptism receives all the support these instances afford. The first is of Lydia and her household.
Paul, whose baptism we have just considered, is now become an apostle ol Christ. He, with Silas, (and with them, probablv, Luke, the writer of this history,) are commissioned from heaven to proceed to Macedonia, and to Philippi, a chief city of it, to preach the gospel. Having arrived, they began their worlt in the fol- lowing way, and with the following success :—
Acts xvi. 13. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made ; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which re- sorted thither. 14. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worship- ped God, heard us : whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. 15. And when slie was baptized, and her household, she besought ws, saying. If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us.
40. And they [that is, Paul and Silas, who afterward had been imprisoned at Philippi] went out of the prison, and entered into the house o/* Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.
Lydia herself, it is evident, had a right to be baptized, according to the order of Jesus Christ, being a Belikveu. But of what does it
vxaxler) forbidding a cup of loaier to be brought, for the use of the master of the house, at this interesting time, is most absurd, and never could have entered the aposilH's mind. The meaning, I think, certainly is, " Can any man forbid the use tf xnater for the baptism of those persons to whom God has given, whai is inf.' nitely more important, the' baptisin of the Holy Ghost ?"
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appear, from the text, did her household consist 1 of children, or grown persons 1 Before we answer this question, we observe, there are Four things which a Paedobaptist must admit and take for granted, before he can urge this place in his favor ; but if he can prove none of them, his argument (to use the learned Limborch's phrase) " is good for nothing,'*
1. That Lydia had, at this time, or lately, a husband.
2. That she had children, and children then in infancy.
3. That these children were with her at Philippi.
4. That such children were actually baptized.
The whole of these admissions I strongly question ; for,
The 1st is improhahle ; for, had she a husband, she was not likely to be thus engaged in business : and especially as no mention is made of him, though the apostles were repeatedly at her house.
The 2d is uncertain ,- because there are thousands of households where there are no infant children.
The 3d is incredible ,- for if, as the text indicates, Lydia was come from Thyatira (a journey, including both sea and land, of probably not less than 300 miles) o.x business, it is not to be believed she would bring young children with her, if she had any.
The 4th is inconclusive ,- because the word household or house is used in Scripture when the whole of the family is not included, but the principal part only. See 1 Sam. i. 21, 22.
The argument, therefore, for infant baptism, grounded upon the bap- tism of Lydia's household, is extremely weak, as there is no evidence SHE HAD EITHER HUSBAND 07* CHILDREN : and Certainly, before any such custom can from this case be supported, as an ordinance of the New Testament, it ought to be undeniably proved, from the text, that she had infant children, and that they were actually baptized.
Should it be replied, in favor of infant baptism, that Lydia at this time was probably a resident at Philippi, although originally from Thy- atira, and that consequently her infant children must be with her, — this I would answer, by asking, Must not then her husband be with her] But this evidently was not the case, for this reason, — If Lydia had a husband with her, he surely must be one of the "household" — if he was one included in this household, he must have been baptized, because the household was, — if he was baptized and joined in the same union with Paul and Silas as Lydia, would she say, " Come into MT house!" or would Luke say, "they entered into the house of Lydia" supposing there was a believing husband at the head of the family 1 Impossible. The language employed by the inspired historian evidently implies, 'a single female at the head of a family, and at the head of a business.' And the fair conclusion is, that her household were her servants ; or, if her children, that her husband was deceased, and her children so far advanced in life as to join in her journey, her business, and her worship ; and thus they would be capable of instruction, faith, and baptism, as Christ commanded ; and as in elTect plainly stated of the household in the next section.
But, more satisfactory to the pious reader than ten thousand sur- mises, the question of the persons of Lydia's household may be an-
VOL. II. — 8 P
38 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. f86
swered, with the greatest probability, from the last verse above cited. Paul and Silas, being delivered from prison, and quitting the jailer^s house and family^ according to his own request, ver. 34, 36, they " en- tered into the house of Lydia," (for my reader will remember, this was the only other Christian house in the city, and in this family the only other persons baptized ;) and here, undoubtedly, they would meet with her ' household' which they had baptized : having entered, we read, "when they had seen the buethuen, they co3ifouted them, and departed." If then Lydia's household be denominated " brethren," and were capable of being " comforted" by the word, they must have been
BELIEVEUS IX CuillST.
Mr. Whitby seems to consider this unquestionable. "And when she, and those of her household, were instructed in the Christian faith, in the nature of baptism required by it, she was baptized and her house- hold." Paraphrase on the place.
LiMBORC'H. "An undoubted argument, therefore, caimot be drawn from this instance, by which it may be demonstrated, that infants were baptized by the apostles. It might be, that all in her house were of a mature age ; who, as in the exercise of a right understanding they believed, so they were able to make a public profession of that faith when they received baptism." Comment, in loco. In Psedobap. Ex. Vol. II. p. 359.
Mr. T. Lawsox, referring to this argument, says, " Families may be without children ; they may be grown up, &c. So it is a wild infer- ence to ground infant baptism upon." Baptismalogia, p. 92.
Assembly of Divines. " Of the city of Thyatira — a city of Asia — here dwelt Lydia, that devout servant of God." — " Atid entered into the house of Lydia: doubtless to confirm them in the faith which they had preached to them — Lydia and HERS hearing of their miracu- lous deliverance, could not but be comforted and confirmed in the truth." Annot. on Acts xvi. 14. 40.
The place at which Lydia was taught and baptized must have been remarkabl}^ convenient for immersion. The people were " by a river side," ver. 13, and at a place frequented by the Jews for religious puri- fication, by washing in the water. Thus
Mr. Doddridge. " On the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the side of the river Strymon, where, according to the custom of the Jews, there was an oratory, or a place of public prayer." — " It is certain that the Jews had a custom of building their oratories or proseuchas, or places of public prayer, by the sea side, or near rivers, for the sake of purification." Fam. Expos, on the place.
Joheph Johx Gurxey. " Although the baptism practised by John, and by the apostles, did not, in all its circumstances, resemble those Jewish washings to which I have now adverted ; yet it was precisely similar to them in that main particular of imjiersion in water." Ob- serv. on the Pecul. of Friends, p. 61.
Inference. If the Divine word which records the baptism of Lydia and her household, and subsequently refers to them, is to be my only
87] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 39
guide upon the inquiries before us, I must infer, * that they were all believers in Jesus, and were baptized as their Saviour was.'
§ VII. The Baptism of the Philippian Jailer and Household.
Paul and Silas, having been cast into prison at Philippi, are delivered from their confinement at midnight, by the miraculous interposition of God. An earth- quake shook the foundations of the prison, the doors of it were opened, and the prisoners' bands loosed. The jailer, suspecting the escape of the prisoners, drew nis sword to destroy himself, but which Paul prevented, by assuring him the pris- oners were all there. Then follow his conversion and baptism :—
Acts xvi. 29. Then he called for a light, and sprang" in, and came tremblhig, and fell down before Paul and Silas. 30. And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31. And they said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 33. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. 34. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
Here observe, 1. The jailer, bringing Paul and Silas out of the prison, being persuaded that they were the servants of the true God, and were now delivered by his power from their unjust and cruel pun- ishment ; and deeply convinced, at the same time, of his own guilt and danger, urges them to tell him iclLat he should do to be saved? To this, greatest of questions, he received a direct answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. It is probable, many, if not all the jailer's family, alarmed at this awful event, ran to his assistance, as his life, they would consider, imminently in danger, both by the prisoners in order to escape, and especially by the law, if any had fled. Hence Paul indirectly spake to the whole. Believe, and thou shalt be saved, yea, and thy house too, in the same way.
Doddridge. " Thou shalt be saved and thine house. The meaning cannot be that the eternal salvation of his family could be secured by his faith ; but that — if they also themselves believed, they should be entitled to the same spiritual and everlasting blessings with himself; which Paul might the rather add, as it is probable that many of them, under this terrible alarm, might have attended the master of the family into the dungeon." Fam. Expos. Note on the place.
2. We may next learn, from the text, in the most satisfactory manner, of what the jailer's household consisted ; that they were not infants, or persons so young as to be incapable of being taught the gospel, and of believing it; for thus we read, ver. 32, " They spake urttohim the word of the Lord, axd to ALL tii.vt weue is his house." This house-
40 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [88
hold is instructed, instructed all, and then baptized. Infants, there- fore, cannot here be included.
3. Luke further describes the jailer and his household, and shows thereby how the Lord's commission was still strictly obeyed. Paul and Silas first preached the gospel to the whole house, as observed above ; and now we read, verse 34, the jailer ^^ rejoiced, believinr in God, WITH ALL HIS HousK." Then it follows, he had no infant children, or those words cannot include them ; for of this faith they would be incapable.
Matthkw Hexrt. "The voice of rejoicing, with that of salva- tion, was heard in the jailer's house, — He rejoiced, believing in God, with oil his house : there was none in his house that refused to be baptized, and so made ajar in the ceremony, but they were unanimous in embracing the gospel, which added much to the joy." Expos, on the place.
Calvin is still more expressive. " Luke commends the pious zeal of the jailer, because he dedicated his whole house to the Lord ; in which, also, the grace of God illustriously appeared, because it suddenly brought the WHOLE FAMILY to a pious consent." Comment, in loco.
Inference. As the same pre-requisites to baptism are here specified, in relation to the jailer's family, as to himself, viz. 1st, that theivordof the Lord was spoken to them as to him ,- and, 2d, that he and they equally believed in God, I must, on inspired authority, conclude, that we have here nothing more or less than a plain example of a believ- ing HOUSEHOLD BAPTIZED, the whole being EauALLx disciples of Christ ; and as to the mode, that it was what the Lord sanctioned by his example and command, and nothing different therefrom.*
§ VIIL Paul baptizing at Corinth.
The next Instance is the baptism of several persons at Corinth, where we now find the same apostle exerting himself to the utmost fnrtho spread of the Messiah's kingdom. Here, tliougli many opposed themselves a/i'l h/u^phemed, yet he zeal- ously persevered, and liis labors were crowned with success; for thus we read: —
Acts xviii. 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. 5. And
* Some, in opposing the practice of immersion, have imagined great difficulties in this case. They cannot conceive where the jailer could find a suitable place, and especially in the night, to receive llie ordinance in this form. It is not for us, at this distance of time, to state the plwe, as the sacred historian has nc)t done so. The Scriptures affirm that " he and his were baptized :" what do these words mean 1 We reply (from the sense of the word, and from the other scriptures) " they were immersed in the name of the Lord Jesus." Then it falls to the part of our opponents to prove that they were not baptized in this way. These irmir-
gined difficulties ha.\e not a particle of weight upon that mind that admits that HRiST's AUTHORITY was Paul's Only guide.
It may not be improper, however, to remind the reader how exceedingly com- mon the practice of cold bathing was, and still is, in the East. That frequent bathing was usual amonii the Grecians, Romans, and now is in Turkey, in which country this city Philippl stood, is testified by Lord Bacon, " It ia strange that the use of bathing, as a part of diet, is left.
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when Silas and TLmotheus were come from Macedonia, Paal was pressed in the Spirit, and testified to the Jews tJiat Jesus was Clarist. B. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of tfee Corinthians heaiing, believed, and were baptized.
A church bang formed in this place, Paul afterwards writes them two epistles. In the first of these, he laments the unhappy divisions that prevailed amongst them, in contending for different ministers, as if they had so many Saviours, and had been baptized in their separate jjames. Upon which he reasons.:—
1 Cor. i. 13. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? 14. I thank God thai I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius. 15. Lest any should say that J had baptized in mine own name. 16. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas : besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
Chap. xvi. 15. 'Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted thenjselves to the ministry of the saints.
Paul at Corinth, as at all other places, begins his work by " testify- ing" to the people "tlie things concerning Jesus Christ," and by teach- ing, not by baptizing, he makes disciples to Christ. He continued his labors at Corinth a year and six ajoHths, in which time, " many hear- ing" his preaching, " believed, and were baptized." He himself bap- tized but few, namely, Crispus, Gaius, and the household of Stephanas, and in this he afterwards rejoiced, as none of them, in their angry con- tentions, and excessive |)artiality, could say, " they were for Paul ; for, Paul baptized th,em, and that in his own name ;" for, he adds, the first and chief work for which Christ sent him, was, " not to baptize, but to preach the gospel.'"*
it is aot said, the household of Crispus were baptized, though, had it been so, it is certain they were proper subjects of the ordinance, agreeably to the words of the institution ; for, he " believed on the Lord, WITH AtL HIS HOUSE." Their baplism, if obedient to Christ, was a matter of course.
With the Romans and Grecians it wa.9 as usual as eating or sleeping ; and so it is amongst the Turks at this day." hi StennelVs Answer to Addington, p. 34.
GR0TIT7.S, (the most learned and best informed man in Eurojie in his time) held it as highly probable, from the practice of the country, that the jail at Philippi was provided with ba).he, which would admit of the ordinance in this form without delay.
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42 S'CklPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [^90
The persons who composed " the house of Stephanas," (the last household said to be baptized.) are not described where their baptism is recorded ; and had nothing, in any other place, been said of them, this would have been the only house left in such uncertainty; but, as if it were the design of the Holy Spirit to leave no room for dispute, as to the proper persons to receive the ordinances of Christ, we find this fa- mily also described at the end of this epistle, as cited above : they were the " first fruits" of the word of God in Achaia, and " they addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints." They exerted themselves in acts of zeal and charity, in reference to their fellow, but poorer, or more afflicted disciples ; and hence, (we scarcely need add) could not be in- fant children.
Doddridge. " They have set themselves, SfC. This seems to imply, that it was the generous care of the whole family to assist their fellow Christians; so that there was not a member of it which did not do its part." Fam. Expos. Note on the place.
Guise. " It therefore seems that the family of Stephanas were all adult believers, and so were baptized on their own personal profession of faith in Christ." On the place.
Hamimond. " I think it unreasonable that the apostle's bare mention of baptizing his [Stephanas'] household, should be thought competent to conclude that infant's were baptized by him ; when it is uncertain whether there were any such at all in his house." Works, Vol. I. p. 492. In Psed. Exam. Vol. II. p. 358.
Mac KNIGHT. "The family of Stephanas seem all to have been adults when they were baptized, for they are said, chap. xvi. 15, to have devoted themselves to the viinistry of the saints.^' Apos. Epis. Note on 1 Cor. i. 16.
REFLECTION ON THE BAPTISM OF HOUSEHOLDS.
We have now found the record of Three Households baptized by the apostle Paul, or Silas, his companion ; Lydia^s, the Jailer's, and Ste- phanas'. If it were tlie constant practice of the apostles to baptize children with their parents, (as our Ptedobaptist friends maintain,) we should reasonably have expected, and, no doubt, should have found, in various places of scripture, after naming the baptism of believers, the words added, 'and their children,' or 'and their little ones;' as families of young children are expressed in the Old Testament. And I infer that this must have been a tact in maxt instances, because we find in this book MANY THOUSANDS of adults believing, and being baptized, or added to the Lord. See Acts ii. 41, iv. 4, v. 14, &c. Would it, then, be probable that tlo-ee families only would be specified as families, while hundreds, or, it may be, thousands of other families, are not re- ferred to in the most distant way ? This, I conceive, next to impossi- ble ; and, therefore, infer that the baptism of families was compara- tively of rare occurrence.
But in these three cases we have not the words ' and their little ones ;*
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nor yet ' and their children ;' (and this expression might be used with- out necessarily implying infants,) but the term " house" or " household" is used, which conveys no idea as to the age of the persons intended, nor whether they were the children or the servants of the heads of the families ; and, therefore, had nothing been said descriptive of them, it would have been exceedingly inconclusive to have inferred a prece- dent FOR iNFAXT BAPTISM from the use of the word household; be- cause there are thousands, yea, millions of families that have no infant children. The writer of this pamphlet has baptized households ; and, among others, a " Lydia and her household," and yet never baptized a child. From the word " household," therefore, to infer the baptism of infants, is completely begging the question. But, as my reader has seen, there is something said of these three households, which describes the constituents of them: from this it is demoxstuably certain, that the jailer's and Stephanas' were professedly believers in Christ, and that which is said of them is of infants impossible. And as to Lydia' s, if "the brethren" Paul and Silas "comforted" in her house were her household, (and there were no other Christians in the city but the family they had just quitted,) there is no more uncertainty respect- ing them. Thus while households out of number are referred to in the Scriptures, and nothing is added by which we could learn of what they consisted, it has pleased God to give such information of the baptized households, as to lead the reader to infer, that they all were (as the same apostle testifies of the church, of which Stephanas and his household were members,) "called of God to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 Cor. i. 9.
The celebrated Paedobaptist writers I have cited, candidly allow that the Scriptures, regarding these households, teach nothing further upon our inquiries than what I have endeavoured to make plain to the reader. To his own judgment I cheerfully leave his decision.
§ IX. Certain Disciples at Ephesus Baptized.
This is the ninth and last place, in the Acts of the Apostles, relative to our present inquiries. Tlie question whether the persons here referred to, were bap- tized twice, first witli John's baptism, and now Christ's, does not affect the object of our examination.
Acts xix. 1. Paul, having past through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples, 2. He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye be- lieved ? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. 3. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. 4. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, That they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. 5. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the
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Lord Jesns. 6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them ; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. 7. And all the men were about twelve.
That in these persons we have an example of adult baptism is clear ; For, 1 . They are called " disciples." — 2. They " believed." — 3. They "received the Holy Ghost." — 4. They "spake with tongues and pro- phesied;" and were in number twelve mex. We need not, therefore, add another word respecting them.
CONCLUSION OF THE ACTS.
We have now, Christian reader, passed through all the Acts of the Apostles, and examined all the instances of the administration of this ordinance recorded in this sacred history, and to this place, we can con- fidently assert, That we have no where found a single place or passage, that describes, records, or implies the baptism of any infants. The reader will not suppose this a hasty conclusion, when he hears the fol- lowing Paedobaptists : —
Goodwin. "Baptism supposes regeixeration sure in itself first. Sa- craments are never administered to begin, or imrk grace. Read ALL the Acts, still it is said, they believed, and loere baptized.^'' Works, VoL L P. L p. 200.
Mr. T. BosTOTf. " There is no example of baptism recorded in the Scriptures, where any were baptized but such as appeared to have a saving interest in Clxrist." Works, p. 384.
LiMBORCH. " There is no instance can be produced, from which it may indisputably be inferred that any child was baptized by the apos- tles." Complete Syst. Div, B. V. Ch. xxii. § H.
Mr. Baxter. (The appeal he makes to Mr. Blake, in this place, might be made, with all confidence, to every Paedobaptist.) " I con- clude, that all examples of baptism in Scripture do mention only the administration of it to the professors of saving faith ; and the precepts give us no other direction. Ann I provoke Mr. Blake, as far as is seemly for me to do, to name ONE precept or example for baptizing any other, and make it good if he can." Disptit. of Right to Sacram. p. 156. In Pxd. Exam. Vol. II. p. 29.
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CHAPTER III.
THE EPISTLES.
We now proceed, lastly, to examine those passages in the Apostolical Epistles which refer to this ordinance.
§ I. Passages which contain an express Allusion to the Mode, and the Spiritual Design of Baptism.
Rom. vi. 3. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death ? 4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death ; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.
Colos. ii. 12. Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with hhn through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
The object of the apostle Paul in these places, and their connection, is to show the churches to which he is writing, the necessity of a holy walk and conversation. To this end he puts them in mind of their baptism, the profession they made in it, and the obligation they took upon themselves to live according to those truths symbolically taiiahtbv and in the ordinance. * Know ye not^ says he to the Romans, ' that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ,' into a profession of his religion, ' we7'e baptized into his death,' into a reliance upon, and conformity to his death, the great design of which was to take away sin; and, consequently, as our Lord died, and was buried on account of it, so should we die and be buried to the love and practice of it. Then follows this plain and striking allusion to the particular act by which the rite in question is administered, in verse 4, which, with the same allusion in the Epistle to the Colossians, reads to this eftect : —
* Therefore (that is, to express this very design) we are BURIED
* BY and IX BAPTISM, with Christ our Lord; and as He was raised
* UP from the dead by the glory of the Father, so are we at our baptism,
* WHEREIN we likewise are raised up to walk thenceforth in new- ' ness of life ; and this is not of ourselves, but through the faith of ' the operation of God, who thus raised up his Son from the sepulchre
* to live and reign for ever.'
In these places the apostle does twice describe baptism as effecting a burial and a resurrection, and as such to be a continued representation of the burial and resurrection of Christ, our Pattern and Lord ; and this is realized only in immersion.
46 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [94
By these plain allusions to the Mode of the ordinance, the sense of the word " baptize," is most plainly exhibited and confirmed ; and the necessity of " going down into, and coming up out of the water" — of "baptizing IN thk Jordan," and where "there was much watkh ;" (which phrases we found in connexion with baptism,) is here evidently explained. Psedobaptist divines, of the greatest celebrity for learning and information, have frankly allowed what we have above asserted. We have no difficulty but in making such a selection as would be most highly esteemed by the reader. The following are, perhaps, the most unexceptionable that could be produced.
Mn. Wall, ViciM- of Shoreham, in Kent, and author of that famous work, ' The. History of Infant Baptism,' for luhich he received the thanks of the whole clergy in convocation. " As to the manner of baptism then generally used, the texts produced by every one that speaks of these matters, John iii. 23, Mark i. 5, Acts viii. 38, are un- deniable proofs that the baptized person went ordinarily into the water, and sometimes the Baptist loo. We should not know from these ac- counts whether the whole body of tlie baptized was put under water, head and all, were it not for two later proofs, which seem to me to put IT OUT OF auESTioN : One, that St. Paul does twice, in an allusive way of speaking, call baptism a BURIAL ; the other, the custom of the Christians, in the near succeeding times, which, being more largely and particularly delivered in books, is known to have been generally, or ordinarily, a total immersion." Defence of the History of Infant Baptism, p. 131.
Archkishop Tillotson. "Anciently, those who w^ere baptized, were immersed and buried in the water, to represent their death to sin ; and then did rise up out of the water, to signify their entrance upon a new life. And to these customs the apostle alludes, Rom. vi. i—^r Worm, Vol. I. Scrnt. vii. p. 179.
Archbishop Secker. " Burying, as it were, the person baptized m the water, and raising him out again, without auESTioN, was anciently the more usual method ; on account of which Saint Paul speaks of baptism as representing both the death, burial, and resurrec- tion of Christ, and what is grounded on them, — our being dead and buried to sin, and our rising again to walk in newness of life." Led. on Catechism, L. xxxv.
Mr. Sam. Clarke. " We are buried with Christ by baptism, &c. In the primitive times the manner of baptizing was by immersion, or dipping the whole body into the water. And this manner of doing it was a very significant emblem of the dying and rising again, referred to by St. Paul, in the above-mentioned similitude." Expos, of the Church Catechism, p. 294, ed. 6.
Mr. Wells. " St. Paul here alludes to immersion, or dipping the whole body under water in baptism ; which, he intimates, did typify the death and burial (of the person baptized) to sin, and his rising up out of the water did typify his resurrection to newness of life." lllusl. Bib. on Rom. vi, 4.
Mb. Nicholson, Bishop of Gloucester. " In the grave with Christ
95] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 47
we went not ; for our bodies were not, could not be buried with his ; but i7i baptism, by a kind of analogy or resemblance, while our bodies are under the water, we may be said to be buried with him." Expos, of the Church Catechism, p. 174.
Mr. Doddridge. " Buried with him in baptism. It seems the part of candor to confess, that here is an allusion to the manner of baptizing by immersion." Fam. Expos. Note on the place.
Mr. George Whitefield. " It is certain that in the words of our text, Rora. vi. 3, 4, there is an allusion to the manner of baptism, which was by immersion, which is what our own church allows," &c. Eighteen Sermoiis, p. 297.
Mr. John Wesley. '' Buried with him — alluding to the ancient inanner of baptizing by immersion." Note on Rom. vi. 4.
Mr. Whitby, author of a Commentary on the Neiv Testament, and more than forty other learned works. " It being so expressly declared here, Rom.vi. 4, and Col. ii. 13, that we are buried with Christ in baptism, by being buried under water ; and the argument to oblige us to a conform- ity to his death, by dying to sin, being taken hence; and this immersion being religiously observed by all Christians for THIRTEEN CENTURIES, and approved by our Church, and the change of it into sprinkhng, even without any allowance from the author of this institu- tion, or any license from and council of the church, being that which the Romanist still urges to justify his refusal of the cup to the laity; it were to be wished that this custom might be again of general use, and aspersion only permitted, as of old, in case of the Clinici, or in present danger of death." Note on Rom. vi. 4.
The apostle uses the figure of Planting, as well as of Burying, in allusion to baptism, verse 5. '' If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrec- tion." This also is in perfect agreement with the same Mode of ad- ministering it. The circumstance in nature, from which the figure is borrowed, is the same as that employed by our Lord, John xii. 24. " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." The seed to be planted must be buried in the soil ; so the Christian in baptism is ' planted in the likeness of the death, that he may be also in the likeness of the resurrection of his Lord.'
Mr. Macknight. " Planted together in the likeness of his death. The burying of Christ, and of believers, first in the water of baptism, and afterwards in the earth, is fitly enough compared to the planting of seeds in the earth, because the effect, in both cases, is a reviviscence to a state of greater perfection." Note on Rom. vi. 5.
Assembly of Divines. " If we have been planted together, Sex:. By this elegant similitude the apostle represents to us, that, as a plan that is set in the earth lieth as dead and immoveable for a time, but after springs up and flourishes, so Christ's body lay dead for a while in the
48 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [96
grave, but sprung up and flourished in his resurrection ; and we also, when we are baptized, are buried, as it were, in the water for a time, but after are raised up to newness of life." Annot. in loco.
Inference, With certainty I may gather from the Scriptures at the head of this section, That the outward form of baptism in the apostolic age was a burial in watku. It is made infinitely interesting to the heart of a Christian by that which it was intended to represent, viz. the death, burial, and resurrection of the Redeemer ; and here too I may infer the infinite and irresistible obligation the baptized person is under to devote his life to that Lord to whose death and resurrection he is thus emblematically conformed in the baptismal rite : and I see also in these verses, by what principle and power this is all to be realized, " through faith, which is of the operation of God." In none destitute of that living principle can this intention of the ordinance be fulfilled. If sprinkling were the mode, and infants the subjects, these passages never could have been written. To the baptism of believers alone, and that administered by immersion, will these passages apply.
§ II. Occasional Mention of Baptism.
Eph. iv. 5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
1 Cor. xii. 13. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether tve be bond or free ; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Gal. iii. 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.
1 Cor. XV. 29. Else what shall they do which are bap- tized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead ?
To the Epliesians and Corinthians the apostle is recommending peace and unity ; that they should be all of one heart and mind, so that there be no schism in the body, as all were one in Christ. To urge which, he puts them in mind of what they had been uniformly taught, that there was but " One JiORi), one Faith, one Baptism ;" and that "all were baptized into one bodt, whether Jews or Gentiles." We should here observe, (what we have so frequently noticed before,) that the apostle places faiih befoue baptism, as Christ the great Lawgiver had done. He that believeth, and is baptized. " One faith, one bap- tism." If this passage were to be expressed according to the general practice of the present day, the order both of Christ and the apostle must be " reversed.'' See Simeon, at p. 28.
97] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 49
In the above verse to the Galatians, the apostle is thought to be alluding to the change of garments which must necessarily take place after the administration of the ordinance ; to which may allude the expressions, " putting off the old man with his deeds," and " putting on the new man," Eph. iv. 22, 24 ; Col. iii. 9, 10 ; and especially, as here, "putting on Christ," as "the Lord our righteousness."
Adam Clarke. " When he [the person baptized] came up out of the water, he seemed to have a resurrection to life. He was therefore supposed to throw off his old Gentile state, as he threw off his clothes, and to assume a new character, as the baptized generally put on new or fresh garments." Comment, on Rom. vi. 4.
The last verse cited above, 1 Cor. xv. 29, has obtained many inter- pretations, as the meaning of the apostle in the words, " for the dead," is not certain.
John Edwards. " Some of the fathers hold that the apostle's argument in the text is of this sort : If there should be no resurrection of the dead hereafter, why is baptism so significant a symbol of our dying and rising again, and also of the death and resurrection of Christ. The immersion into the water was thought to signify the death of Christ, and their coming out denotes his rising again, and did no less represent their own future resurrection." In &iennett's Answer to Aiddington, p. 105.
Mac KNIGHT. "Christ's baptism was — an emblem of his future death and resurrection. In like manner, the baptism of believers is em- blematical of their own death, burial, and resurrection." Apost. Epis. Note on Rom. vi. 4.
Inference. If faith prkceded baptism in the apostles' days, and the persons who received that ordinance had imbibed the influence of that oxE Spirit, and had pnt on Christ as the robe of righteousness, the spiritual adorning of their souls, hoping for their part in the first resur- rection at His appearing and glory, it is most manifest, that none but a genuine convert to Christ could thus be baptized, or enjoy such high and delightful privileges.
§ III. Baptism illustrated by Events recorded in the Old Testament.
These are the last passages we find in the New Testament which relate to ^e subject of our examination.
1 Cor. X. 1. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea ; 2. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
1 Pet. iii. 20. The long suffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few,
that is, eight souls, were saved by water. 31. The like
figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not
VOL. II. — 9 E
50 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [98
the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The better to understand the apostle Paul, in the first passage above, the reader would do well to peruse the account, in the Old Testament, in Exod. xiv., to which he refers. In verse 22, we are told, that the Israelites " went into the tnidst of the Red Sea upon dry ground,'^ that the water divided, opening a passage for them, and forming "a loall unto them an the right hand and on the left." We also learn, that "the cloud" which had conducted them, now removed its situation; stood between the two armies, and overspread- and concealed the Israel- ites from their enemies; that it was bright, and ^^ gave light" io the former, while it was " darkiiess'^ toward the latter. It does not appear that any water actually touched the Israelites in aiiy sense whatever; and hence, the word " baptized" must be used hy the apostle in s figura- tive sense ,- and if it has a reference to the mode, we have only to ask, Does the situation of the Jews, " ix the cloud, and in the sea," best agree to sprinkling with water, or a total burial in it ? Paedobaptists of the highest celebrity will answer : —
" WiTsius (says Mr. Booth) expounds the place to this effect. ' How were the Israelites baptized in the cloud, and in the sea, seeing they were neither immersed in the sea, nor wetted by the cloud ? It is to be considered, that the apostle here uses the term ' baptism,' in a figura- tive sense, yet there is some agreement to the external sign. The sea is water, and a cloud differs but little from water. The cloud hung over their heads, and the sea surrounded them on each side ; and so the water in regard to those that are baptized.' " In Fsed. Exam. Vol. I. p. 185.
Whitby. "They were covered with the sea on both sides, Exod. xiv. 22; so that both the cloud and the sea had some resemblance to our being covered with water in baptism. Their going into the sea resembled the ancient rite of going into the water ; and their coming out of it, their rising up out of the water." Ibid. p. 187.
By the apostle Peter, in the passage cited, we are taught that as Noah and his family " we7-e saved by ivater," so baptism, the antitype of the water of the deluge, "now saves" the believer; not by a wash- ing of his person, or a ceremonial purification, which cannot take away gin ; but the water being a " like figure" in both cases, that is,EXHiBiT- I3VG Christ and his merits, the believer is saved by the sacred KEALiTT signified. In this case, baptism is " The answer of a good conscience toward God :" both the answer given to inquiry at baptism, and the subsequent testimony of the mind to God, are conscienfiouSy being in accordance with a sincere and heartfelt faith in the merits of the dying and rising Saviour.
OwKx. " I deny not but that there is a great analogy between sal- vation by the ark, and that by baptism, inasmuch as the one did repre"
99] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 51
sent, and the other doth exhibit Christ himself." On Hebrews, Vol. IV. p. 138. Williams's Abr.
Mackxight. " This answer of a good conscience being made to God, is an inward answer, and means the baptized person's sincere persuasion of the things which, by submitting to baptism, he professes to believe ; namely, that Jesus — arose from the dead, and that at the last day he will raise all from the dead to eternal life, who sincerely obey him." Apost. Epist. Note in loc.
Inference. If the exercise of " a good conscience" is associated with the ordinance of baptism, in none but a believer in Christ can this union be realized.
CONCLUSION OF THE NEV7 TESTAMENT.
Havix (J now, my reader, completed the chief design of this pamphlet In transcribing, and laying before you every passage of this sacred volume that relates to the subject of our inquiry, and contains any in- formation, whether on the subjects, mode, or spiritual design of bap- tism, I have, I humbly hope, fulfilled the title I have assumed, in pre- senting you with •' THE SCRIPTURE GtiiDE TO BAPTISM." Our Divinc Master commanded us to "search tiie Scriptures," and I have no doubt but that it would meet with His gracious approbation if this plan were adopted, in reference to any subject pertaining to His cause or kingdom. " To the word and to the testimony," is an inspired maxim in theology, and one from which no Protestant will dissent. " Ye do err," said our Redeemer, "not knowing the Scriptures."
Vl^'e ought, therefore, now to be able to answer the three inquiries proposed at the beginning : —
I. Who are proper subjects of Christian baptism, according to the authority of Christ, and the practice of his apostles 1
Answer. We have met with the baptism of many thousands of persons, ai>d the ordinance administered on many different occasions ; but we have no where found, through all this sacred book, any one per- son baptized (Christ excepted) that we have the slightest reason to suppose was not first instructed in the doctrines of the gospel, and had professed to beliete ; but this is either expressly testified, or so implied of all, as to leave no just ground of dispute.
II. By what mode should the ordinance be administered 1
Answer. W^e have no where met with a single verse, word, or cir- cumstance, which indicates the application of water, by pouring or sprinkling ; but wherever any thing is found descriptive of this ordi- nance, immersion (as the word baptism undeniably signifies) is plainly implied in circumstances, and confirmed by allusions.
III. What is its spiritual design, and in whom is it realized ? Ansiuer. The passages that kav^ been feefore -us plainly indicate,
52 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [100
that it was the Divine intention that this ordinance should exhibit and teach the important change produced by the efficacy of grace on a sin- ner, namely, his purification /row sin, and buiiial as to the love and practice of it; his kesukiiection to a new and religious life; the UNION and fellowship into which the Christian enters with the Tri- une God ; and his rising from the dead, through his risen Lord, at his coming.
Here my pages might close : but when the subject of baptism was first brought under my own examination, and I had read with care these portions of Scripture ; being taught from early childhood to consider in- fant baptism of Divine authority, I felt anxious to propose a few auES- TioNs to those competent to answer me : and I conceived the generality of inquirers on the subject would feel a similar solicitude. On these questions I have obtained satisfaction to my own mind ; and being de- sirous the reader, if disposed to propose the same questions, should enjoy the same satisfaction, I shall employ an appendix to the fore- going pages, in expressing those questions, and giving such answers as to me appeared conclusive and satisfactory. Whether the reader may consider them so or not, I leave to his own judgment and conscience, and to the influence of that Spirit, whose office it is to " guide into all truth."
I shall support the answers by citations from eminent Paedobaptist writers, as I have done my foregoing observations ; and sometimes give such extracts alone, as the best and most conclusive repTies.
A.PPENDIX, PART I.
On the Grounds of Infant Baptism, its Rise, and sup- posed Benefits.
1. Question. Although in the passages of Scripture you have cited, I have not found an express authority, either by command or example, for tlie baptism of infants, yet will Paedobaptist divines allow that no such authority is to be found in the New Testament ?
A72swer. Bishop Burnet. "There is no express precept or rule given in the New Testament for baptism of infants." Expos, of the Articles, Art. xxvii.
Mr. S. Palmer. "There is nothing in the words of institution, nor in any after accounts of the administration of this rite, respecting the baptism of infants : there is not a single precept for, nor example of, this practice through the whole New Testament." Aninver to Priestley on the Lord*s Supper, p. 7.
Luther, " Jt cannot be proved by the sacred Scripture, that infant
101] SCRIPTUEE ©UIDE TO BAPTISM. 53
baptism was instituted by Christ, or begun by tke first Christians after the apostles." {In Psed. Exam. Vol. II. p. 4=.) See also Good-wiit, Bosxox, LiMB-oacH, aud Baxtkr, at page 44 of this pamphlet.
2. What then are we to make of those words of our Saviour, and his subsequent conduct? Mark x. 14, 16. "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them."
Answer. If, when our co»descending Saviour took these children in his arms, it had been added "and he baptized them," instead of the words "and blessed them," then this passage with propriety might be adduced, and, indeed, would have decided the subject; but as the Holy Spirit has recorded the circumstance, it no more refers to infant baptism, than to infant communion, or infant circumcision. — It is certain Christ did not baptize these children, for he never baptized at all, John iv. 2 ; and if liis disciples, who baptized for him and by his authority, had been commanded by their Lord to baptize infants, it is certain they would not have " rebuked" the parents or frieniis of these children for bringing them.
But this passage, by fair mference, and implication, contains an ar- gument against infant baptism. Here you observe parents bringing their children to J^sus to crave his blessing upon them ; or, at least, that he would " pray," Matt, xix. 13, that the blessing of heaven might attend them.
Now let me ask. If baptism would have brought these children into the covenant of grace, or into Christ's church, or secured to them any spiritual benefit, would the Lord Jesus have concealed that circumstance from these parents, and from his disciples 1 Would he * take them in his arms and bless them,' and give them back to the parents tvithout bap- tism, and without a word upon that ordinance ? Was it ever known that any spiritual benefit was sought from him and he bestowed it not "? Here the spiritual good of these children was sought at his hands, and if baptism was the key, the seal, the door to all the spiritual blessings -of the covenant of grace, (as Psedobaptists often describe it,) would the Lord Jesus refuse it, — or send them ?iway without it ] This is impos- sible ; and, therefore, I infer that infant baptism is no part of the will of Christ, that it can communicate no good, and ought not to be ob- served. Some of the most learned Paedobaptists are aware that this passage serves not their cause^
Poole's Coxtinuators. " We must take heed we do not found infant baptism upon the example of Christ in this text ; for it is certain that he did not baptize these children. Mark only saith, He took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them/* Annot. on the place, in Matt. xix. 14.
Bishop TAXLon. " From the action of Cbrist';s blessing infants, to 9* E?
64 SCIUPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. C^^^
infer they are to be baptized, proves nothing so much, as that there is a want of better arguments ; for the conclusion would with more proba- biUty be derived thus : — Christ blessed infants, and so dismissed them, but baptized them not ; therefore, infants are not to be baptized.** — Liberty of Prophecy, p. 230.
3. If the New Testament does not afford an authority for infant baptism, upon what grounds do Paedobaptist divines practise and defend it ?
Answer. Mr. Edav. Williams, (one of its most zealous advocates,) affirms, " The champions [for it] are by no means agreed upon this question. On what is the right of infants to baptism founded!"*
Their grounds are various and contradictory. The early fathers who practised it, urged the virtue of the ordinance in taking away sin, and securing eternal life ; adding, the certain ruin of those that neglected it.j- — The church of Rome holds, " If any one shall say that baptism is — not necessary to salvation, let him be accursed.":j: — The Greek chufch, by Cyril, patriarch of Constantinople, affirms, "We believe that baptism is a sacrament appointed by the Lord, which except a person receive he has no communion with Christ."§ — The Lutheran church, and the church of England, hold both the ordinances " as generally necessary to salvation." 'J'he former, agreeing with Calvin and Melancthon, ' own a sort of faith in infants,' affijrding them a right; while the English church hesitates not to baptize them, " Because they (the infants) promise by their sureties" repentance and faith, ** which promise, when they come to age, themselves are bound to perform."|i
Many learned writers, as well as churches, have expressed their views upon this inquiry. Mr. Wall, Mr. Hammond, and many others, hold that the practice of ' Judish proselyte baptism' is the foundation of the Christian rite, and as infants received the former, so they should the latter: but Mr. Owen, Mr. Jennings, and others, have proved that no such practice existed among the Jews to afford such a pattern till gene- rations after Christ.^ — Sir N. KnatchbuU assumes circumcision as the proper foundation. — Beza, and after him Mr. Doddridge and others, con- sidered the holiness of the children of believers, as making them proper subjects.** — Mr. Matt. Henry and Mr. Dwight contended that * the profession of faith made by the parents' to be their children's right.-|-f- — Mr. H. F. Burder affirms, " The identical principle which pervades and unites the whole of the argument — is that infants are to be baptized SOLELY on the ground of connexion with their parents " and this he explains, — " It is a connexion in the covenant of grace, the covenant of redemption, the everlasting covenant, embracing all that man can desire,
* Notes on Mordce's Social Reliirion, p. 68.— t See OriirRn, Cyprian, and Am- brose in Mr. Wall's Hist, of Infant Bap. Vol. I. chap. 6. 13. 14.-t Calpchism of the Council of Trent, Part. 11. p. \M.—% Confess. Christ. Fidei, cap. xvi.— |I See Church CatPchisni, and P^dobap. Exam. Vol. II. p. 491, et seq.— IT Mr. Judson's Serm. oa Christian Baptism, pp. 62, 63.—** See Beza and Doddridge on 1 Cor. vii. 14.— tt Treatise on Baptism, p. 76, and Dwight's Theology on the subject.
103] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 55
or all that Jehovah can impart."* — An anonymous writer affirms that " children by baptism are actually brought into the covenant of grace " This is denied by another, who replies that the " children of believers are really and truly in the covenant of grace before their baptism."-j-
4. Some of the grounds assumed by those churches and eminent men, appear to have weight. Does not the *' ho- liness" referred to, existing in the children of believers, and founded on 1 Cor. vii. 14, afford the ground required? " For the unbelieving Kusband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband ; else were your children unclean, but now they are holy.*' If holy,, they are surely proper subjects of baptism.
Answer, So many good men have thought : but holiness is no where required in God's word as a pre-requisite to baptism. And is there not an absurdity in the thought that baptism, which is the out- ward sign of washing away sin, Acts xxii. 16, should be administered to infants, because they are holy ?
But what is the holiness intended in the above passage 1 The apos- tle says, it results from an uxbelievek being sanctified. Now this sanctitication cannot be spiritual ,- for that is the work of the Holy Ghost upon the mind and heart, and in which an unbeliever has no share or part. Acts viii. 21. If attention be paid to the subject upon which the apostle is speaking, his meaning can readily be perceived. He is advising the Corinthians upon the question, ' Whether, if a husband or wife who is converted to Christ, has an unbelieving partner, either Jew or idolater, the believer should separate from the connexion ;^ as in Ezra x. 1 — 14. The apostle advises, ' If the unbelieving partner be pleased to dwell with the believer, the believer should not cause the separation.' Then follows the passage before us, " For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife ;" or, as Doddridge renders it, " is sanctified to the wife," dec.
Now, in wliat sense can any thing, or person, be sanctified, in which there is no moral or spiritual holiness communicated, and the sancti- fication is not the work of the Holy Spirit ] The Scriptures afford the reply : The temple, the altar, the offerings, the official garments, &c., under the law, were expressly said to be sanctified, when they were appointed by God's law, and set apart to certain specified purposes. Apply this to the subject before us. Marriage is an appointment of God ; and when a man or woman enters into that contract, he or she, by God's law, is set apart, or sanctified, to stand in the relation of hus- band or wife; and hence the union is lawful, becoming, and pleasing to God, and shall continue to be so, though one of the parties shall be converted and the other be an unbeliever.^:
* Sermon of the Rishl of Tnfanis to Baptism, pp. 7, 25; cited by Mr. I. Bin in Strictures on ditto, p. 18.— t In Paedobap. Exam, as tipfore.
$ Mr. Gill, on the verse in question, cites a numl)er of passages from Jewish writings, in which the word sanctified, in the phraseology of common use, is used for legally espoused. If iliis reading were adopted in this passage, it would not
56 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [104
Taking this, which appears to me to be the sense of the passage, the inference which the apostle draws from this sanctification, or legal appointment and constitution by Divine law, is natural, " else were your children unclean, but now are they holy." i. e. If the marriage union was not according to the law of God, your children would be the fruit of un- cleanness ; but now, the union being in harmony with God's will, they are " holy ;" they are free from illegitimate impurity. So some of the greatest and best Paedobaptist writers understand the apostle. Thus among a multitude of others : —
Mr. T. Williams, of London. " The unbelieving husband is sanc- tified by the (believing) wife, &c., so that the connexion is perfectly lawful, and the children are legitimate, or in a ceremonial sense, holy.''^ Cottage Bible, on the place.
Melancthojt, the Reformer. " The connexion of the argument is this, ' If the use of marriage should not please God, your children would he bastards, and so unclean ,• but your children are not bastards, therefore the use of marriage pleaseth God.* How bastards were un- clean in a peculiar manner the law shows, Deut. xxiii." la Psedobap. Exam. Vol. II. p. 375.
■SuAREs AND Vas<iues. "The children are called holy, in a civil sense : that is, legitimate, and not spurious. As if Paul had said, * If your marriage were unlawful, your children would be illegitimate. But the former is not a fact ; therefore not the latter.' " Ibid. p. 373.
Cam>;ro. " The holiness of which the apostle speaks is not opposed to that impurity which by nature property agrees to all on account of Adam's offence, but to the impurity of which believing wives were apprehensive from their cohabiting with unbelieving husbands." Ibid. p. 372.
Inference. If the holiness which is merely legitimacy of birth, is no title to baptism, then tihe passage we have considered favors not the baptism of infants.
5. From this interpretation, it would appear that the children of believers are no better, or more /?o/y by nature, than the children of unbelievei's. Is this in accordance \vith the Scriptures ?
Answer. Most unquestionably so. Thus Psalm li. 5, <' Behold, •(saith the son of pious Jesse,) I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Eph. ii. 3, " We (says the apostle Paul, for himself and all the primitive Christians,) were i»r xature the <;hildren of wrath, even as others." Romans v. 12, " Wherefore, as hy one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Chap. iii. 9, 10, **■ What then, are we better tSian they 1 No, in no wise : for we have
only convey good sense, hut make the reasonin<; of tlie apostle evident. If the word hoi 1/ must be taken in a^spiritual sense, and infant baptism inferred from it, the word sa7iitified, being evidently hereof a kindred meaning, would unquestion- ably afford equal ground for the baptism of the unbelieving parent ! Nor siiould it be forgotten, that the word children in this place, as in Acts ii. 39, signifies posterity of any age.
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before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin ; as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one." And our Saviour adds, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Ye must be born again." John iii. 6, 7.
Church of EjfGLAJf d. " Original sin is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man ; and therefore in every person born into thi^i w-orld it deserveth God's wrath." Articles, Art. ix.
Mr. DoRRiNGTois^. " Although the parents be admitted into the new covenant, the children born of them are not born within that cove- nant, but are, as all others, born in a state of rebellion and misery."* Vindlcat. of the Cliurch, p. 44.
Mr. Adam Clarke. " All are born with a sinful nature, — there has never been one instance of an immaculate human soul since the fall of Adam. Through his transgression all come into the world with the seeds of death and corruption in their own nature ; all are sinful — all are mortal — and must die." On Rom. v. 12, 13.
Mr. Doddridge, " As we all proceed from a corrupt original, we do not more evidently bear the image of the earthly Adam in the in- firmities of a mortal body, than in the degeneracy of a corrupted mind." Farn. Expos. Improv. on John iii. 1 — 10.
6. But God was pleased to promise to Abraham to be " a God to him and to his seed." Gen. xvii. 7. Now believers in Christ are Abraham's spiritual seed ; must not they, therefore, and their seed, be included in that promise, and possess the same spiritual benefits ?
Answer. The statement introducing this question is an important truth, that God promised to be 'a God to Abraham and to his seed ;' and so it is true that believers in Christ are Abraham's spiritual seed, and also that the God of Abraham is equally their God : but it would be not only not true, but an alarming and dangerous error, to assert that the children of believers are, on that account, also the spiritual seed of Abraham, and enjoy the same benefits. The children of believers must themselves become believers, must possess the same faith with their parents, and be Christ's genuine disciples, in order to be included in that promise and blessedness.
Hear the apostle Paul, Gal. iii. 6, 7, " Abraham believed God," i. c. in reference to the coming Messiah, " and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham :" ver. 29, " and if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." And ver. 9, " So then they which be op faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."
No doctrine can be more dangerous, (because calculated to be fatally lelusive,) than this, ' That because persons are bom of pious parents they are therefore under gome peculiar spiritual and advantageous dis-
• ♦ See Appendix, Pan IV.
58 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [106
tinction, on account of which they are entitled to sacred privileges, and do not need equally with others the same converting grace and mercy, and the same atoning sacrifice.' John the Baptist applied the axe to the root of this tree, at the dawn of this dispensation. " Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our Father." Ye are a " generation of vipers ! Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?" So our Redeemer, when the Jews uttered their usual vaunt, " We be Abraham's seed," repHed, " I know that ye are Abraham's seed. If God were your Father, ye would love me. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." John viii. 33, 37, 43, 44. Such is Christ's testimony of the carnal circumcision !
If, then, Abraham's own descendants were not his spiritual seed, while destitute of faith and love, surely none can contend that the unbeliev- ing descendants of believing Gentiles can be that spiritual seed.
Mn. Edw. Williams exposes this error in strong terms, in his Notes on Morrice's Social Beligion. " Our author takes considerable pains to maintain a favorite point, which I shall pronounce a very pre- carious hypothesis. It is that of hereditary grace, if I may so express the notion, — that all the children of the godly are absolutely interested in all new covenant blessings. . . . But that interpretation of the Abra- hamic promise, Gen. xvii. 7, which Mr. M. and some others have adopted, and which considers the words in their undistinguished appli- cation, is REPLETE WITH VERT ABSURD CONSEaUENCES. Jchovah,
surely, was not the God of Abraham and of his unbelieving descen- dants in the same respects. . . . The New Testament saints have nothing more to do with the Abrahamic covenant than the Old Testament believers who lived prior to Abraham." Notes, p. 312 — 317.
Matt, Henry. " Grace doth not run in the blood, nor are saving benefits inseparably annexed to external church privileges ; though it is common for people thus to stretch the meaning of God's promise to bolster themselves up in a vain hope. . . . The children of the flesh, as such, by virtue of their relationship to Abraham — are not therefore thie children of God." Expos, on Rom. ix. 6 — 13.
7. But did not circumcision bring those that received it into the covenant of grace ?
Answer. No : in no case whatever. The covenant of grace (as Mr. Border expresses it, cited at p. 54,) is ' the covenant of redemption, the everlasting covenant.' Nothing can bring into that covenant but the grace of God in Christ Jesus. It existed from the beginning of the world, and righteous Abel enjoyed its blessings. It has been an ever- flowing river, communicating its saving streams to the church of God THHouGH ALL AGES, and ALL DISPENSATIONS. Enoch, Noah, and, no doubt, thousands of others, though uncircumcised, enjoyed the blessed- ness of this covenant before Abraham was born. Circumcision, there- fore, is no part of the ' covenant of grace ;' and that it did not bring Abraham into it is undeniably clear, for he enjoyed it and all its blessed- ness many years before circumcision was instituted ; when he was, says the apostle, " not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision." Rom. iv. 10.
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\nd that this rite did not bring children into the covenant of grace is equally evident, from the addresses of all the holy prophets and apos- des, and of Christ himself, to those who had thus received that rite, and i!vho are addressed a.s persons entirely destitute of the grace of God, and being by nature the children of wrath even as others. See, among innumerable passages, Isa. i. 2 — 15, John viii. 42 — 44, Eph. ii. 3, Acts vii. 51, 52.
8. In what sense, then, is circumcision ' a seal of the covenant,' if it had not this efficacy ?
Answer. Common as it is to denominate circumcision a seal of the covenant, it is no where so denominated in the word of God. In one place, Rom. iv. 1 1, it is called a seal of righteousness ,• but except the whole verse be cited, the sense of the apostle is entirely lost. The words are these : " And he (that is, Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised." In no other place is circumcision called a seal ; and let my reader try, after carefully looking at the whole passage, to make this applicable to infants, or to infant circumcision or baptism, or to unbelievers in any case, if he can. He will remark,
1. Circumcision is here spoken of, not in reference to its general administration to the Jewish nation, but to Abraham in particular. 2. It is spoken of, not as it might be received by a person destitute of vital piety, for it is called " a seal of the righteousness of faith, &c." 3. It is not spoken of as sealing what was in future to be bestowed or en- joyed, but of a blessing lojig before possessed — " of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised."
I appeal to the serious judgment of the reader, what a perversion of the sense of God's word it must be, to call circumcision, from this passage, ' a seal of the covenant,' or, ' a seal of righteousness,' thereby referring to the national administration of that rite to the Jews, and as sealing to them the blessings of salvation, when the apostle so guar- dedly expresses himself as sealing only what a true ano lia'ino faith had previously obtained ! This passage can a: ply to none but to Abra- ham, and those of his posterity, who, like their progenitor, possessed a converting and saving faith.
Venema. " Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith, as the apostle affirms ; but this only in respect of such Israelites as were believers." In Psedobap. Exam. Vol. II. p. 268.
9. Why, then, was circumcision administered to infants at all?
Answer. It pleased God to enter into z. particular covenant with Abraham, which he had not done with the other patriarchs, though they equally enjoyed the blessings of the covenant of grace ; in which particular covenant, described in Gen. xvii. 1 — 14, the Almighty prom- ised to Abraham, " I will multiply thee exceedingly — make thee " exceeding fruitful ; and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall "come out of thee. — And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after
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«*thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for " an everlasting possession ; and I will be their God."
My reader need not be told, that an kauthlt kixgdom is here promised to Abraham and his seed. He was to multiply into a nation, *r nations, and kings were to arise amongst them ; the land of Canaan was to be their country, and their perpetual residence. In it they were to dwell from generation to generation, and to continue a separate people from all other nations, until the special promised seed, that is Christ, should appear, in whom, as afterwards declared. Gen. xxii. 17, 19, " all the nations of the earth shall be blessed."
To this covenant it pleased God to append the institution of circum- cision. Thus it is given. Gen. xvii. 9 — 23 : — " Thou shalt keep my " covenant, therefore ; thou, and thy seed after thee, in their generations. " This is my covenant which ye shall keep, — Every man child amongst " you shall be circumcised ; he that is eight days old, he that is born " in thy house, or bought with money of any stranger, must needs be " circumcised ; and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlast- " ing covenant. And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that vv'ere " bom in his house, and all that were bought with money, every male " among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of *' their foreskin in the self-same day, as God had said unto him."
My reader will here perceive how the rite of circumcision pertained to Abraham's household. Every 7nale from eight days old, and every servant, or picrchasedslave, of any age, willing or unwilling, must submit to this rite ; and if he refused, " that soul (it is added,) v. 14, shall be cut off from his people." Can this rite, thus indispensably administered to all the males of a house, because the master received it, be to them the seal of the covenant of grace 1 This, I think, no enhghtened Christian can for a moment imagine.
The Divine intention in making this ordinance a national rite, and requiring it to be so strictly observed upon all the male offspring of Abraham, and to those who were incorporated among them, appears evidently to be, their separation as a people from the kest OF THE w^oRLD, that in them, in after ages, God might accomplish his wise and gracious purposes ,- first, in the coming of the promised Seed, the Saviour of sinners ; and beyond that event, in what the prophets have foretold of Israel, to be fulfilled at a period yet to come. For these designs, God was pleased to separate the Jews, by this indel- ible sign upon their persons : and as it was to be a national distinction, it must necessarily be a national rite, and in ctlecting this separation the Divine wisdom appears in applying it in early infancy.
WiTSius. " The descendants of Abraham were separated by cir- cumcision from other nations, and renounced their friendship; as appears from the open declaration of the sons of Jacob, Gen. xxxiv. 14, 15. A circumcised person, say the Jews, ' has withdrawn himself from the whole body of the nations.' And, indeed, circumcision was a great part, and as it were the fouxdatiox of the middle wall of partition." Econ. of the Cov. Book iv. ch. 8. § 20.
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Mr. Erskine. " V/hen God promised the land of Canaan to Abra- ham and his seed, circumcision was instituted for this, among other purposes, to show that descent from Abraham was the foundation of his posterity's right to those blessings." Theolog. Dissert, p. 9.
10. In what sense then are we to consider the Abra- hamic covenant as continued into the gospel dispensation, and enjoyed by Christians ?
Answer. My reader, by comparing Gen. xv. 5, 6, 18, and chap, xvii. 1 — 14, will observe that the covenant (or rather covenants) made with Abraham were two-folh. 1. Spiritual and internal, pertaining to Abraham's acceptance with God, and salvation, as a believer in the coming Messiah ; and which was ail realized in Abraham's believing posterity, as we have already shown. 2. Worldly and external, pertain- ing to the land of Canaan ; with which were to be united the services of the temple, a worldly sanctuary, a material altar, carnal sacrifices, and a changing priesthood ; and the whole of this was intended as " a sha- dow of good things to come." See Heb. vii. 23, ix. 1 — 10, and x. 1.
Now, all that is spiritual and internal in this covenant, and as enjoyed by Israel under it, is what is called 'the covenant of grace' and is continued in the Christian church by the Holy Spirit ; while what is worldly, external, and typical, is fulfilled and done away in the coming of Christ, and in the spiritual privileges of his church. "We have now, as Christians, no worldly kingdom, nor have we a temple, altar, or sacrifices, as the Jews; nor are we required to be separated from the nations of the world, so as to be one distinct nation ; and hence no carnal distinction is necessary. — " My kingdom (said Christ) is not of this world." John xviii. 36. It is not worldly in its nature, seat, form, government, or privileges ; but spiritual, and, as such, denominated " the ministration of the Spirit ;" and consists " in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom. xiv. 17. 2 Cor. iii. 7.
Veistema. " Circumcision, according to a two-fold covenant, inter- nal and external which then existed, had likewise a two-fold aspect, spiritual and carnal. The former referred to the internal covenant of grace ; the latter to a legal, typical, and external covenant. That was concerned in ' sealing the righteousness of faith,' as the apostle asserts: this in the external prerogatives of Judaism, and in conferring external benefits. That was peculiar to the believing Israelites ; this was common to the whole people." In Psed. Exam. Vol. II. p. 243.
11. Is there, then, nothing typical in the rite of circum- cision ?
Answer. In replying to this question, it is my happiness to be able to refer my reader to an authority which, as a Christian, he will esteem decisive and infallible. Circumcision was a type, but not of baptism, (a figure, a type of a figure!) but of ' the circumcision of the heart' and * the putting off the sins of the flesh.' And this blessed work is accomplished, not on babes in age, but ' babes in Christ ,•' born from above, and children of God. Hear the infallible authority to which I
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refer, Rom. ii. 28, 29, " For he is not a Jew, (an Israelite indeed,) which "is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, (in God's ultimate " design,) which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one "inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heakt; in the spirit " and not in the letter, whose praise is not o( men but of God." Phil, iii. 3, " For we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, " and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Col. ii. 11, " Circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, " in the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circum- "cision of Christ.''
12. According to this, baptism was not instituted in the ROOM OF CIRCUMCISION, and so became its end and fulfil- ment.
Answer. It is certain that this was not the case. 1st. Because when the apostles and elders were assembled at Jerusalem, to consider the question, Whether those wh.o were tamed to God from among the, Gentiles should be circumcised '? Acts xv., not a word was said about the end and fulfilment of the Jewish rite in the Christian : and had this been the known appointment of Christ, this must have been the decision of the subject. 2d. Because had this been the appointment of the Saviour, it would have been an aftront to his authority to continue circutncision for another day after he had substituted baptism in its place ; but circumcision v^as observed, even by the apostle Paul, long after Christ had instituted the New Testament rite. See Acts xvi. 3. This would have been a similar impropriety to the offering of 'a sacri- fice for sin,' according to the law, after Christ had ' put away sin by the sacrifice of himself!'*
13. As you allow that circumcision was a seal in re- ference to Abraham as a believer ; is not baptism equally a seal under the New Testament, in a believer's case ?
Answer. If it be so, it must be understood in the same sense in which the apostle expressed it in the case of the patriarch ; and then it would be " a seal of the righteousness of the faith which the believer had, yet being unbaptized." But we cannot do better than allow the New Testament to answer our inquiries ; and here I am no where taught that any external ordinance is a seal of the covenant of grace,
* The aVsurdity of urcine the baptism of infants from the iustitntion of circum- cision, vviU appear l)y oV)S('rviiig, 1st, That male children wily were to receive that rite; and 2(1. That men servants ami slaves w^ere equally commamied to be cir- cumcised when the master was, and that upon pain of being cut off, or put to death. If that Divine command, thorefore, be applied as descriptive of the subjects of baptism, it will equally require the baptism of servants and purchased slaves, will- ing or unwilline, as well as of infants ; and it would restrict the Christian ordinance to the male sex alone. This being so plainly contrary to the revealed will of Christ on baptism, proves the fallacy of the doctrine.
In the word of God I see no connexion or resemblance between circumcision anil t)aptiBm, except in this, that they were both initiartf oriUnnnres ; the one into the body politic of Israel of old, the subjects of which rite are all the male inhabitants —the other into the bocly cf Christ, which is his church, and the subjects of which are all believers in him. To this the apostle seems to refer in Col. ii. 11—13.
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but most plainly instructed, (in beautiful harmony with the spiritual nature of the Messiah's kingdom,) that the luork of the Spirit on the heart is the only seal of that covenant.
2 Cor. i. 22. " Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."
Eph. i. 13. " Ye were sealed wdth that Holy Spirit of promise."
Eph. iv. 30. " Grieve not that Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."
Chahnock. " God seals no more than he promises. He promises only to faith, and therefore only seals to faith. Covenant graces, there- fore, must be possessed and acted, before covenant blessings be ratified to us." Works, Vol. II. p. 781. ed. 1.
ViTRiJfGA. " The sacraments of the New Covenant are of such a nature as to seal nothing but what is spiritual, nor to be of any advantage, except in regard to those who really believe in Jesus Christ." In Pasd. Exam. Vol. II. p. 268.
14. How, then, is the doctrine of the Church of Eng- land to be understood, by which we are taught, that a child by baptism is " incorporated" and " grafted into the body of Christ's Church ;" and in another place, '♦ made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven ?"
Answer. To support that doctrine by any thing said in the Scrip- tures of this ordinance, (as the reader of the preceding pages must be aware,) is impossible : to make it agree with the analogy of faith as taught by the concurring testimony of the whole of Divine revelation is equally impossible. What is here attributed to baptism, the Scrip- pires ascribe to the omnipotent agency of the Holt Ghost in regene- ration, and to the infinite efficacy of the Redeemer's cross in securing eternal life!! See 2 Thes. ii. 13. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Baptism, then, is here said to do, what nothing short of the power and grace of God is able to perform ; and that children, as they advance in life, should be taught to express and believe such a doctrine, and to consider themselves in the possession of such spiritual advantages, merely by having re- ceived this external rite, destitute as it is of all saving efficacy, is inex- pressibly lamentable and dangerous ; because it might prove, as it is fitly calculated to be, fatal to their souls !
Mn. JoHX Htatt, (the late excellent minister of the Tabernacle, Lomlon.) "If the church of Christ is his body, and every real be- liever is a member of that body, how important the question, Are we members of the body of Christ? Millions have been taught to say, that in baptism they are made memljors of Christ, who have given indubitable proofs that they uttered falsehood ! ! The members of the body of Christ are united to him as a head ; and there are no dead, no unsanctified meml)ers. All are useful, active, and obedient. Ah ! my hearers, beware of deception — beware of substituting the name for the reality — tlie form of godliness for the power. Surely, licentious cha- racters cannot presume that they arc members of the mystical body of
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the Son of God. A holy head, and impure members ; a pure fountain, and corrupt streams ; a good tree, and bad fruit ; — these are anomalies. If you are united to him, you are of one spirit with him." Sermons on various Subjects, p. 363.
15. But if infants are not to be received into the Church by baptism, and they should die in infancy, is not their salvation endangered ?
Answer. By no means. How can the want of that endanger sal- vation which God hath nowhere enjoined or required 1 Did not our Lord receive unbaptizeo children into his arms, when on earth, and bless them, and send them away unbaptized ; and without uttering a word about baptism 1 See question 2. And who then will say that baptism is necessary that He should receive them to himself in heaven ; especially when they remember his gracious declaration in reference to these unbaptized children, " Of such is the kingdom of heaven "?" See Mark x. 14, and Matt, xviii. 10.
Persons dying incapable of faith in Christ, are without doubt saved» not by wafer, nor by the work of man ,• but by the blood of Christ, and by the power of the Spirit. In like manner persons dying in faith, but having no opportunity of being baptized, as the penitent on the cross, are saved by the same infinitely efficacious, and the only suffi-- cient means.
If we do for our children what God hath required, we shall find this quite sufficient, without attempting to do what God hath 7iot required. And should it please God to remove them from us in infancy, it is bet- ter to commit their souls to the merits of Christ, than to the unautho- rized application of water to their bodies. The former we are sure saves ; 1 John i. 7. And we are equally sure baptism cannot save ; Acts viii. 13, 23 ; and is not necessary to salvation, Luke xxiii. 43. To apply baptism yor salvation, therefore, is making a false saviour of the ordi- nance, and implies a criminal unbelief in the all-sufficiency of Christ. \
16. Admitting the want of Scripture authority for infant baptism, on what other authority is it supposed te be ori- ginally founded ?
Answer. Some have urged in its behalf apostolical tradition. Others, a council of bishops, held at Carthage, A. D. 253. Higher authority it has not ; and neither of these can Protestants admit.
Mr. Field. "The baptism of infants is therefore named a tradition, because it is not expressly delivered in Scripture that the apostles did baptize infants ; nor any express precept there found that they should do so." On the Church, 375.
Bishop Prideaux. " Paedobaptism — rests on no other Divine right than Episcopacy."* Fascicul. Contro. Loc. iv. § iii. p. 210.
* In the Edict drawn up in the year 1547, by command of Charles V. Emperor of Germany, to allay disputes between the Romanists and the Reformers, 7Va- dUion is expressly slated as the ground of infant baptism: " Habet prseterea Eccle-
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17. If this be granted, when was infant baptism sup- posed to be introduced ?
Answer. There is no certain evidence of it earlier than the begin- ning of the third century, after Christ. At that period it was practised in Africa, and is mentioned, for the first time, by Tertullian, about the year 204, in his work entitled " De Baptismo," which I shall cite pre- sently.
Curceli,;eus, (a learned divine of Geneva, and professor of Divinity.) ** The baptism of infants, in the two first centuries after Christ, was altogether unknown ; but in the third and fourth was allowed by some few. In the fifth and following ages it was generally received. The custom of baptizing infants did not begin before the third age after Christ was born. In the former ages, no trace of it appears — and it was introduced without the command of Christ." In Pasd. Exam. Vol. II. p. 76.
Salmasits a>-d SncEnus. " In the two first centuries no one was baptized, except being instructed in the faith, and acquainted with the doctrine of Christ, he was able to profess himself a believer ; because of those words, He that believeth, and is bupiized." Ut supra.
Venema. ^'Tertullian has no where mentioned paedobaptism among the traditions or customs of the church, that were publicly received, and usually observed. — For in his book, De Baptismo, he dissuades from baptizing infants, and proves the delay of it to a more mature age is to be preferred. Nothing can be affirmed with certainty, concerning the custom of the church before Tertullian, seeing there is not any where, in more ancient writers, that I know of, undoubted mention of infant baptism." Ut supra, p. 74.
The passage alluded to, containing the FIRST MENTION of in- fant baptism, is the following : —
Tertullian. " Pro cujusque personse conditione ac dispositions, etiam state, cunctatio baptismi utilior est, precipue tamen circa parvu- los. Quid cnim necesse est sponsores etiam periculo ingeri ? Quia et ipsi per mortalitatem destituere promisiones suas possint, et proventu malffi indolis falli. Ait quidem Dominus, Nolite illos prohihere ad me venire. Veniant ergo dum adolescunt, veniant dum discunt, dum quo ve- niunt decentur : fiant Christiani, dum Christum nosse potuerint. Quid teetinat innocens JEtas ad remissionem peccatorum ] Cautius agetur in sascularibus ; ut cui substantia terrena non creditur, divina credatur. Norint petere salutem, ut petenti dedisse videaris. ... Si qui pondus intelligant baptismi, magis timebant consecutionem quam dilationem : fides Integra secura est de salute." De Baptismo, cap. xviii.
«»ifi traditiones, &c. quas qui convellit, is ne^at eandem columnam esse et firma- ifienlum veritaiis. Hujus eeneris sunt Bantisimis parvulorum et alia." i. e. "The f'iiurch moreovor has tracfilions haiuird down to ihcso liyncs from Christ and the aposilos, through the hands of the hishops : which whoever would overturn, he must deny the same (viz. the Church) to Le the pillar and cround of truth. Of this fl'.rt are the baptism of little ones, and other things." In Dr. Ryland^s Candid Slateinenl. Notes, p. 28.
10* F 2
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TRANSLATION. " The delay of baptism may be more advantageous, either on account of the condition, disposition, or age of any person, especially in refer- ence to little children. For what necessity is there that the sponsors should be brought into danger ? because either they themselves may fail of the promises by death, or be deceived by the growth of evil dis' positions. — The Lord, indeed, says. Do not forbid them to come to me. Let them, therefore, come when they are grown up ; when they can understand ; when they are taught whither they are to come. Let them become Christians when they can know Christ. "Why should this innocent age hasten to the remission of sins 1 Men act more cau- tiously in worldly things ; so that Divine things are here intrusted with whom earthly things are not. Let them know how to seek salvation, that you may appear to give to one that asketh. . ..If persons understand the importance of baptism they will rather fear the consequent obliga- tion than the delay : true faith alone is secure of salvation."
Now I request my reader to observe — 1. That there is confessedly no mention of infant baptism in the writings of any of the Fathers, before TertuUian, in the beginning of the third century ; though the baptism of believers is repeatedly found, in various authors ; some of which I shall cite in the next part of this appendix. 2. That when infant bap- tism is first mentioned, in the Christian Father above quoted, it is in a passage where the rite is referred to, not as of something of universal practice and approbation ; but where it is opposed and reasoxed A&AixsT as something unknown in the age of Christ and the apostles, and destitute of their authority, for with him their authority would not have been questioned for a moment ; and as something implying daU' f^er in reference to sponsors, and absurdity relative to children. Thus,
Regaltjus, the learned annotator upon Cyprian. " In the Acts of the Apostles we read that both men and women were baptized when they believed the gospel preached by Philip, but not a word of infants. From the age of the apostles therefore, up to the time of TertuUian, the matter remained in ol>scurity, [or doubtful, in ambiguo ;] and there were some who from that saying of our Lord, Suffer little children to come unto me, to whom the Lord nevertheless did not command water to be administered, took occasion to baptize even new-born infants. And as if, (seculare aliquod negotium cum Deo transigeretur,) they transacted some secular business with God, they offered sponsors or sureties to Christ, who engaged that they should not revolt from the Christian faith when grown up ; which indeed displeased TertuUian." In Sten- netCs Answer to Russen, pp. 69, 73, and in Mr, WaWs Hist. Vol. II. chap. 3.
18. Tradition from the apostles, is declared by the church of Rome to be the authority for infant baptism ; is this said to be its authority where the practice is first men- tioned ?
Answer. No such authority is ever once hinted at.
Yen EM A. " TertuUian dissuades from baptizing infants — which he
115] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 67
certainly would not ha^e done, if it had been a tradition, and a public custom of the church, seeing he was verx tejtacious of traditions ; nor, had it been a tradition, would he have failed to mention itl" See after next question.
19. Do Ve find any other innovation introduced into the Church of Christ, about the same period ?
Answer. Several. We never read of — 1. The consecration of the baptismal water ; 2. The use of sponsors ; 3. The imposition of hands at baptism ; 4, The use of material unction at confirmation ; 5. Offer- ing prayers and oblations for the dead, &c. ; we never read of any of these in any Christian writer before TertuUian ; and hence, learned Psedobaptists infer that they were introduced about that time. Thus, Mr. Pierce, speaking of the third of these, says, that TertuUian is " the most ancient author that mentions this rite ;" and adds, " We make no doubt it began about the time of TertuUian." Vindicution of Dissenters^ Pt. III. cb. vii. pp. 173, 175. We come to the same conclusion, for the very same reason, respecting the baptism of infants. The celebrated aTid learaed divine i cited in the former question seems willing to admit this : —
Venema. *'I conclude, therefore, that psedobaptism catikot be plainly proved to have been practised before the time of TertuUian ; and that there were persons in his age who desired their infants might be baptized, especially when they were afraid of their dying without baptism; which opinion TertuUian opposed, and, by so doing, inti- mates THAT PJEDOBAPTISM BEGAN TO PREVAIL." In Psed. Exttm,
Vol. II. pp. 79, 80.
20. Did the first Christian Fathers, who supported the baptism of infants, suppose that some spiritual benefit was communicated to them by that ordinance ?
Answer. They did. — They held that baptism was necessary to sal- vation ; that forgiveness accompanied it ; that infants by it were purged from the pollution of original sin; and that aU persons dying without baptism were lost. Thus,
CrpRiAX, A. D. 253. "As far as lies in us, no soul, if possible, is to be lost. It is not for us to hinder smy person from baptism and the grace of God ; whjch rule, as it holds to all, so we think it more espe- cially to be observed in reference to infants, to whom our help and the Divine mercy is rather to be granted ; because by their weeping and wailing at their first entrance into the world, they do intimate nothing so much as that they implore compassion."
Ambrose, A. D. 390. " For no person comes to the kingdom of heaven, but by the sacrament of baptism. — Infants that are baptized are reformed b.K^k again from wickedness to the primitive state of their nature."
CiiRTSosTOM, A. D. 398. " The grace of baptism gives cure without pain, and fills us with the grace of the Spirit, Some think that the heavenly grace consists only in the forgiveness of sins ,- but I have
68 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [113
reckoned up tbx advantages of it." " If sudden death seize us before we are baptized, though we have a thousand good quahties, there is no- thing to be expected but hell." See the original of these passages in Mr. Wairs Hist, of Inf. Bap. Vol. I. ch. 6, 13, 14 ; and II. eh. 6.
These extracts, which I might have increased a hundredfold, are sufficient to prove that some of the Fathers, from about the middle of the third century, considered baptism as essentially necessary to salva- tion ; and in this false view of the ordinance, the baptism of infants originated. To this agree the following learned writers : —
SuicERUS, Professor of Greek and Hebrew at Zurich, "This opi- nion of the absolute necessity of baptism arose from a wrong under- standing of our Lord's words, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannct enter the kingdom of heaven." In Paed. Exam. Vol. II. p. 129.
Salmasius, the very learned historian and critic. "An opinion prevailed that no one could be saved without being baptized ; and for that reason the custom arose of baptizing infants." Ibid. p. 128.
21. But if a profession of repentance and faith was al- ways required before baptism in the apostolic age, how could Christian ministers, or churches, so early as the days of Tertullian, admit of the baptism of infants, by whom no such profession could be made ?
Answer. The deficiency, in reference to infants, was ingeniously supplied by introducing " sponsors." They would not dispense ivith the profession, but they would admit it by proxy. Two or three per- sons, and, in the case of an infant of high rank, from twenty to an hundred, were admitted as "sureties," who professed, in behalf of an infant, to repent, renounce the devil and his works, and to believe the doctrines of the gospel. These sureties are first mentioned by Tertul- lian, A. D. 204, in the passage I have copied, pp. 65, 66, where they are called " sponsors," i. e. persons who answer, and make themselves answerable for another.
Here is religion by proxy ; real, personal, experimental religion ! a thing unheard of before since the world began. But when so many strange absurdities were introduced into the church, as those before mentioned, p. 67, we need not be much surprised at this. To a reader, however, who knows by his own experience, and by the concurrent testimony of every part of the Bible, that there is no religion but that which is between God and the soul, and is God's gift, and in which another can have no share or part, it is grievous to reflect seriously on this alarming innovation.
22. But do modern Paedobaptists entertain the same view as the ancients, as to the necessity of baptism to salvation ?
Ayrswer. The MAJonirr of professed Christians have ever avowed, and do still avow, the same doctrine I The church of Rome has honored those who dare deny it with an " anathema ;" and the Greek
117] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 69
church, though not so ready to anathematize, entertains the same opinion. The reformed churches, and the different denominations of Protestant Psedobaptists, whether bearing the name of EpiscopaUans, Presbyterians, Independents, CongregationaUsts, or Wesleyans, while they generally disavow that doctrine, yet they hold opinions, which, when fairly carried out to their consequences, come little short of the same amount. They have seen in the doctrine of the ancients, and of Rome, ' that no one can be saved without their baptism,' too plain a demonstration of the ' little horn' of antichrist,* — the mystery of ini- quity which began to work in the apostles' days.j- — to avow that doc- trine in the same terms. But let me ask. my respected brethren in these communities. If baptism makes its subjects, as some of them say ,4: " children of God and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven ;" or, as all of them, by their leading writers, have said, that it brings its subjects " into the church of Christ" or " into the covenant of grace," or " seals to them the benefits of that covenant," and which is " the covenant of redemption, embracing all that Jehovah can impart ;" whether this is not tantamount to the doctrine guarded by Rome's anathema 1 If bap- tism brings into, or seals the benefits of, the covenant of grace, it will bring to heaven ; for God hath joined these two together. And if there be not another way of bringing into this ' covenant of grace and redemption' what must become of those who are not brought in, and •who die in that situation 1 Thus pressed to consequences, I see no other conclusion to be come at from these premises, but that of Chry- sostom, just cited, horrible as it sounds ! Let my brethren who would recoil at the thought of that conclusion, examine rigidly and honestly whether the virtues they join to the rite of baptism afford not the just and fair ground of it. And if the conclusion be denied, let them deny the premises from which it is drawn ; but while they avow the pre- mises, I must be allowed to insist upon the conclusion.
23.. If no spiritual or saving benefit necessarily attend? the ordinance of baptism, (which evidently is, and ever has been, conceived as the basis and reason of infant baptism, by the majority of those that have practised it,) why is the ordinance administered at all ? and of what use is it in the church of Christ?
Answer-, " God is his own interpreter." The ritual ordinances appointed of God in his church were never, under any dispensation, intended by him to carry salvation with them. For that purpose " neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision," as the apostle affirms ; and the same may be said of baptism and the Lord's supper. Salvation proceeds from a source entirely distinct and separate from these ordinances. It may be fully enjoyed without them ; and they may be administered, and repeated a thousand times over, without it. The penitent malefactor was saved without baptism : Simon Magus was baptized without part or lot in salvation*
♦ Daniel vii. &-21. t 2 Tlies. ii, 3-10. $ S«e AuthoriUeu at pp. 54, 55.
70 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [118
What, then, you inquire, is the use of baptism ] I reply, It is a solemn, sacred institution of Jesus, intended by him, as I have before observed, to exhibit and to teach the way of salvation. It saves in no way of itself; but it presents a figurative and an impressive representation of saving, — of that real saving, which is through the purifying merits of a crucified and risen Saviour. As such Christ instituted it ; and as such it is the duty and privilege of his followers to observe it, till he come. Thus the apostle Peter, cited p. 49, when he says, Baptism saves ; he immediately guards against error upon this subject, — it is not the putting away the filth ofthejlesh, or impurity, or sin of any kind, which can only be cleansed by the blood of Christ. But it saves as a " figure ;" it symbolically presents " the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness," and to that fountain it directs the penitent to flee, and therein by faith " to wash away sin, calling on the name of the Lord." Acts xxii. 16. When this is realized, then baptism aftbrds the answer of a good conscie/ice, satisfied that Christ is obeyed, guilt purged away, and the soul saved through the blood of the Lamb. Pjedobaptist divines affirm the same. Thus,
Mr. David Davidson, on 1 Peter iii. 21. " Lest any should imagine spiritual deliverance secure by the external rite, in any other sense than figuratively, the apostle adds, that the baptism he chiefly meant was the cleansing of the conscience, which is by faith in Christ. The same figure and reality are repeatedly thus stated. See Eph. v. 26 ; Tit. iii. 5 ; Heb. ix. 14," Comme}itart/ on the New Test. p. 459.
24. Who is the first Christian writer that defended the baptism of infants ?
Answer. The first that mentioned the practice at all was Tertullian, A. D. 204. li, was named next by Origen, A. D. 230. But the first ■writer that defended the practice was Ctpbiax, A. D. 253, At this period the plan of e.dir.itting a prox'ession oy sponsors became so general- at least in Africa where it commenced, and the security the rite afibrded of eternal life was deemed so important, that the practice of it became general. Hence Synods and Councils were held to sanction the prac- tice, and to consider the time after birth when the ordinance may be properly administered. Thus, the very learned writer cited before —
Regal Tius. " Most men thinking this opinion of Tertullian unsafe, were of Cyprian's mind, that even new-born children ought to be made partakers of the laver of salvation ; which was pitched upon in the decree of this Synod, and so the doubt was taken awat."* Jn SiennetVs Answer to Russen, pp. 69 — 73, and in Mr. WalPs Hist. Vol. IL ch. 2.
• Rcffaltins here refers to a Synod, the decision of which took awau anv farther doubt as to the propriety or necpssify of infant baptism. The reaitpr snould be informed that during the lives of the A'frican Fathers, Cyprian and Augustine, seve- ral eeneral meetinps of the ministers of that district, which were called Councils or Synods, were held at Carthage, and Mile vis, to consult and decide on certain subjects. At the first of these, held at Carthage, A. D. 2:)3, si.xty-six of those mi- nisters, or bishops AS they are called, being present, with Cyprian for their president, one Fidus, a country bishop, submitted two questions f ir decision, the latter of which was " Whether an infant, before it was eijjhl days old, n)ight be baptized, if
119] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 71
APPENDIX, PART IL On the Scriptural Mode of Baptism.
Ix my first section, I promised my reader to refer again to the Modk of Baptism, and expressed my hope to satisfy any candid inquirer on the subject ; and this I conceive I shall do, not by the quantity of what I shall write on the subject, for I shall be very brief, but by stating arguments, which I consider irresistibly convincing and decisive. In this part, as in the former, I shall suppose my reader disposed to put inquiries involving all the leading points of the controversy.
1. Question. Are the most learned and competent writers agreed, that the sense you have given, at p. 13, of the words chosen of God to express this ordinance, {baptize and baptism,) is theif ordinary and most proper sense ?
Answer. More competent authority the learned world does not aftbrd than the following : —
WiTsius. " It cannot be denied that the native signification of the words ^u.Trh.y and ^u.7rli^uv, is to plunge, to dip." Econ. oftlte Gov. L. IV. c. xvi. § 13.
Calvtx. "The word baptize, signifies to immerse, and the rite of immersion was observed by the ancient church."*
Zanchius. " The proper signification of baptize is to immerse, plunge under, to overwhelm in water."
Alstedius. " To baptize, signifies only to immerse ; not to wash, except by consequence."
rieetl required 7" Heur?ed his objections, from which the reader may form some idea of these African bishops, 1. "That an infant in the first days after its l)irih is unclean, so that any of us al)hors to kiss it !" This kiss of pea' e was an African accompaniment of baptism. 2. He questioned " Whfjlher so young an infant be a PERFECT HUMAN CREATURE!" The CouncIl decided against him, as seen in Cy- prian's Letter to Fidus, of which, at p. 67, is an extract."
In the councils over which Augustine presided, from A. D. 416 to A. D. 420, the bishops were disposed to go much farther than at any former period. Tliey en- acted their canons, and pronounced their anathemas, in the pure spirit of antichrist. Thus in the IMilevitan council, fourteen or fifteen being present, as depulifs from the whole, they decreed "Placuit ergo omnibus episcopis," &;c. ''It is therefore the pleasure of all the bishops, that whosoever denielh that infants newly torn of their mothers are to be tiaptized ... let him be accursed." And in the " Synodial Kpi.stle of the Council of Carthage to Innocent" of Rome, the same imprecation occurs. "Quicunque negat parvolos per haiaismum Christi a perditione lili<rari," &c. '• Whoever denies that infants are by Christian baptism delivered from per- dition, and brought to eternal salvation, let him be anathema." In Mr. Wall's Hist, of Inf. Bapt Vol. I. chap. xix. § 28. Robinson's Hist, of Bapt. chap. xxii. Mr. Gill's Argument from Apost. Trad, rotisidered, p. 22. The authority of these canons bein^ admitted at Rome, "the doubt of infant baptism" yielded co-exlen- slvely with that authority.
• See this author and those that follow cited at srealer lentrih and their works referred to, in Booth's Padob. Exam. Vol. I. pp. 44 lo 65. Eighty-two such autho- rities are there adduced.
72 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTlSiM. [120
BszA. " Christ commanded us to be baptized ; by which word it is certain immersion is signified."
ViTRiwoA. " The act of baptizing is the immersion of believers in water. This expresses the force of the word."
H. Altingius. " The word baptism, — properly signifies immer- sion ; improperly, by a metonomy of the end, washing.^^
ScAPXTLA. " To baptize, — to dip or immerse, as we immerse any thing for the purpose of dying or cleansing in water."
Mr. Lkigh. "The native and proper signification of it {baptizel is, to dip into water, or to plunge under water."
BossuF.T, bishop of Meaux. " To baptize signifies to plunge, as is granted by all the world."
To the above I might add many living authors : —
Mr. EwiJfG, of Glasgow. " Bx^7.'^a), in its primary and radical sense, I cover with water. It is used to denote, 1st. I plunge, or sink com- pletely under water''' Gr. Lexicon, sub voce.*
Edinburgh Reviewers. "They tell me, (says Mr. Carson,) that it was unnecessary to bring forward ^ny of the examples to prove that the word signifies to dip, — that I might have commenced with this as
a FIXT POINT UNIVERSALLY ADMITTED." In CaiSOn's AhSWCT to
Edin. Prcsbyt. Review, p. 9. A. D. 1832.
2. As in one branch of the Christian church, the Greek language has been continued from the age of the apostles, and with them the words I^x7rli^a> and (izTrlta-fx*. (baptize and baptism), remain unaltered, and in common use to this day, — let me ask, How do ?/ie^ understand the words? and how administer the ordinance ?
Mr. R. Robinson. "The native Greeks must understand theii own language better than foreigners, and they have always understoo(i the word baptism to signify dipping ,- and, therefore, from their first embracing of Christianity to this day, they have always baptized, and do yet baptize, by Tinmersion. This is an authority for the meaning of the word infinitely preferable to that of European lexicographer*. In this case the Greeks are unexceptionable guides."-f- Hist, of Bapt. pp. 5, 6.
* Mr. Ewing, the author of a very useful Greek lexicon, gives several other sense? to the word, and at leninh conlemls that it will admit oi sprinkling . If this were inie, it would not niaipriHlly airccl our present inquiry ; because we cannoi admit I hat our Lord would employ a word to express this ordinance, which, in ihtj first, plain, and most ctmimon use of it, sisnifies immersion, if he intended sprink- ling, supiiosiui the word would bear that sense in a distant and unusual interpre- tation of it. But it is demonstrated by Mr. Carson, in his recent elaborate work on bapvisni, that the word has but one proper sense, namely, that which Mr. Ewino admits above as its first sense. — Mr. Cox makns the following appeal to Mr. E. : — " I now once azain demand of Mr. Ewing to point me out the lexicon, which does NOT eivR dipping, plunging or immersing as the unquestionable, seuled, and uni- versally admitted primitive signification of the contested terms." On Baptism, V.83.
t Mr. Robiason was an Anii-paedobaptisl.
121] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 73
3. But what is denominated the " Greek Church'* is now extended over an immense portion of the globe ; is the same mode of baptism observed in all the nations included in it ?
The Pantalooia, under the article * Greek Church,' thus explains — " That part of the Christian church which was first established in Greece, and is now spread over a larger extent of country than any other estabUshed church. It comprehends in its bosom a considerable part of Greece, the Grecian isles, Wallachia, Moldavia, Egypt, Abys- sinia, Nubia, Lybia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Cilicia, Palestine. . . . It may be observed, that amid all their trifling rites, they practise trine- immersion, which is unquestionably the primitive manner."*
Mr. Wall. "The Greek church, in all the branches of it, does still use immersion." Hist, of Inf. Bapt. Vol. II. p. 376, Ed. 3.
Sir p. Ricaut. " Thrice dipping or plunging, this church holds to be as necessary to the form of baptism, as water to the matter." In Paed. Exam. Vol. I. p. 26S.
4. Is there any evidence in the writings of the first Christian fathers after the apostles, respecting the mode of baptism as administered by them, and in their times? for it is not likely that the mode observed by Christ and the apostles would be immediately changed.
Answer. The first Christians after the days of the apostles could never bring themselves to make so great a change in an institution of Christ, as to substitute sprinkling for immersion. Such a change would require several ages to bring the public mind to receive it ; as every one, acquainted with church history, knows was the case. There was a disposition early manifested to make cerenionlul additions to Christ's appointments, such as consecrating the water, &c., but there is no evidence whatever of altering the mode of this ordinance, except as a recourse or expedient for dying persons, «fec., for above 1000 years, as I shall attest presently.
If then we can ascertain the mode of baptism in the first centuries following the apostles, without doubt it will be what the liord ordained. And happily there is abundance of evidence upon this subject. I shall cite a few short passages, and the references may lead the reader, if disposed, to a deeper investigation : —
Barnabas, Paul's companion. An epistle ascribed to him has escaped the ravages of time. Two passages refer to baptism ; in one he says, " Blessed are they, who, fixing their hope on the cross, have gone " down into the water." The other, " We descend into the water, . . . "and come up out of it, bring forth fiuit, having in our hearts reve- rential fear, and hope through Jesus." Epist. cap. xi.
* * Trine-immersion,' or immersing the person three times, once in the name of each of the Divine Persons, was in use in the beginnini of the third century. It was practised in Enijland till the sixteenth century ; and is still rigidly observed in the eastern churches.
VOL. IX. — II G
74 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [122
Herhas, honored by Paul's salutation, Rom. xvi. 14. A Latin version of his work, entitled, * the Pastor,' or Shepherd, is extant. In it he speaks of the apostles accompanying the persons to be baptized into the water. " The apostles and teachers — preached to them that *' before were dead, and gave them this seal ; for they, (apostili, &c. " dcsccnderunt in aquam cum illis,) went down with them into the water, and came up again." See this and other allusions ih Lib. 1. vis. 8, sect. 7 ; and Lib. III. similit. 9;
Justin Mauttr. About A. D. 140, Justin Martyr wrote ' An Apo- logy for Christians, addressed to the Emperor, the Senate, and people of Rome.' In this work he describes the doctrines and ordinances of the Church of Christ ; and on baptism has the following passage : — " I will " now declare to you also after what manner we being made new by " Christ have dedicated ourselves to God, lest, if I should leave that "out, I might seem to deal unfairly in some part of my apology. They "who are perstiaded and do believe that those things which are taught " by us are true, aud do promise to live according to them, are directed " first to pray and ask of God with fasting, the forgiveness of their former " sins ; and we also pray and fast with them. Then we bring them to some " place where there is water, and they are baptized by the same way of " baptism by which we were Iiaptized : for they are washed (fv ra CJuri) "ill ike water in the name of God the Father, Lord of all things ; and " of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit." Justin Mart. Apolog. 11. sect. 79.*
Teutuli lAX, A. D. 204. " Because the person [to be baptized,] in " great simplicity ... is let down in the water, and with a few words " said, is dipped." Homo in aqua demissus. et inter pauca verba tinctus. Again, when speaking of the vain anxiety to be baptized in the Jor- dan,— " There is no difl'erencc whether one is washed in a sea or in a "pool, in a river or in a fountain, in a lake or in a channel ; nor is " there any difl'erence between them whom John dipped in Jordan, and " those whom Peter dipped in the Tiber :" quos Joannes in Jordane, et quos Petrus in Tiberi tinxit. He also uses the words, " In aqua nier- gimur," i. e. " we are immersed in the water." De Baptismo, cap. 2, 4, 7.
Gregoiit Naziaxzen, a. D. 3G0. " We are buried with Christ •' by baptism that we may also rise again with him ; we descend with " him that we may also be lifted up with him ; we ascend with him
* Upon this passairn of Justin Mn. Wall remarks, "Tliis is the most ancient nccixinl of the way of bapiizin;.', next to the Scripture; and shows the plain ami Biinple manner of aihninisiprinq it." Anil Mr. Reeve.?, the learned translator i.f Justin, adds, in a note. " 'Tis evident from this place of Justin and that of Ter- liillian,(de Cor. Mil. c. 3.) thai Pond.s and Kivers were the only Baptisteries or Fonts the church had for the first two hvmdred yrars. The Catechumen being brouohl to the baptistery, was thus interroiiaied, Doal thou reiwumc the devil ?— Dosllhou renounce the tcorl'i ? &c. &c. Ans. Tdo renounce them.—^f^xi he made an open contession of the faith, the bishop asking him, Dost thou believe <« God? &c., U) which the person answered, I do believe. And this form of interrogation the apostle is ihoushl to refer to when he sivUs baptism the ansirer of a good cori.- gcieme towards God."'—M\.OT this confrssion is made, the candidate (Mr. Reeves adds) was "thrice plunged under water at the naming of the Three Persons m the blessed Trinity." Apologies, Vol. I. p. 97. Nolo.
123] SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 75
" that we may also be glorified with him." Orat. 40. In Sfenndfs Answer to liussen, p. 144.
Basil, A. D. 360. " ¥.v t^io-i t^li; HurAfuTuri," &c. <* By three im- " raersions the great mystery of baptism is accomplished." In Slen- nett, as above.
Ambrose, A. D. 374. "Thou wast asked. Dost thou believe in "God the Father Almighty'? Thou saidst, I do believe, and wast im- " mersed, that is, thou wast buried, (mersisti, hoc est, sepultus es.) Thou " wast asked again. Dost thou believe on our Lord Jesus Christ and his " crucifixion 1 Thou saidst, I believe, and wast immersed again, and so wast buried with Christ."*
Ctril, of Jerusalem, A. D. 374. " As he, l e^Jwuv a- rote CJxiriy^who " is plu7iged in the water, and baptized, is encompassed by the water " on every side ; so they, that are baptized by the Spirit, are also wholly covered all over :" &c.*
Chrtsostom, a. D. 398. "To be baptized (x-^u KctruSuiT^dn) and plunged, and then to emerge or rise again, is a symbol of our descent into the grave, and our ascent out of it ; and therefore, Paul calls bap- tism a burial." Homil. XL. in 1 Corin.
5. Do learned Paedobaptists grant that this practice of immersion was the general, and esteemed the only legiti- mate, mode of baptism, among the early Christians ; and that in this they were obediently following the instruction of Christ and the apostles ?
WiTSius affirms, — " It is certain that both John the Baptist, and the disciples of Christ, ordinarily practised immersion ; whose example was followed by the ancient church, as Vossius has shown, by produc- ing many testimonies from the Greek and Latin writers." Eco7i. of the Cov. Lib. IV. cap. xvi. § 13.
Mb- Bower. " Baptism by immersion was undoubtedly the aposr tolical practice, and was never dispensed with by the church, except in case of sickness,'' &c. Hist, of the Popes, Vol, II. p. 110.
G. J. Vossius. " That the apostles immersed whom they baptized there is no doubt. . . . And that the ancient church followed their exam- ple is very clearly evinced by innumerable testimonies of the fathers." Disputat. de Bap. Disp. I. § 6.
Mn. Reeves. " The ancients carefully observed trine-immersion, insomuch that by the ' Canons Apostolical,' either bishop or presbyter
♦ The sense oT immersion is so clearly conveyed in these passages, and repeated over in so many forms of exjyression, that it is quite impossible Co misunderstand the ancients U()on llie subject. I will transcribe the Latin of Ambrose, and the Latin version that accompanies the Greek of Cyril.
Ambrose. " inlerrogatus es, Credis in l>eum Patrpm Omnir<otentem I Dixisti, Credo: ei mersisti, hoc est, sep»iUu8 es. Iterum intprrogalus p.s, Credis in Domi- num nosinnn Jesum Chri.slum, et crycem ejus? Dixisti, Cjedo, et meraisli : ideo et Christo es sepultus." De swram. Lib. II. cap. vii. Paris, 163-2
Cyril. " Sicut en
im IS qui cineitur; sic et illi a Spiiiiu S XJv. Paris, 17-20.
in af^uis immereitur et baptizatur undlmiaque abaquia baplizali et obvoluii perfecte suot." Catechis, XV/I.
76 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [124
who baptized without it was deposed from the miwistrt." See the Canons, 42 to 50, Reeves' Apologies of Justin, &c. Vol. I. p. 97.
Enctclop.kdia Ecclesiastica. (This splendid work, now publish- ing, A. D. 1835, under the patronage of the highest authorities in the British nation, both in church and state, after stating the reasons urged in defence of sprinkling, proceeds,) " Whatever weight, however, may be in these reasons as a defence for the present practice of sprinkling, IT IS evident that during the first ages of the church, and for mant centuries afterwards, the practice of immersion prevailed; and which seems indeed never to be departed from, except where it was adminis- tered to a person at the point of death, or upon the bed of sickness, — which was considered indeed as not giving the party the full privileges of baptism, — or when there was not a sufficient supply of water. Ex- cept in the above cases, the custom was to dip or immerse the whole body. Hence St. Barnabas says, We go down into the water," &c. &c. Article, Baptism.
6. Admitting this evidence as demonstrative of the ori- ginal practice, must it not be a display of ignorance and tveakness to oppose or contradict it ; and, indeed, to ridicule that mode, as some do, a profane contempt of the wisdom and authority of Christ?
Mr. Wall, (who explored all the voluminous writers of antiquity in search of evidence of infant baptism,) says, " This [immersion] is so plain and clear by an infinite number of passages, that as one cannot but PITY the weak endeavors of such Psedobaptists as would maintain the negative of it, so we ought to disown and show a dislike of the PROFANE SCOFFS which some people give to the English Anti» pjedobaptists merely for the use of dipping ; when it was, in all proba- bility, the way by which our blessed Saviour, and for certain, was the most usual and ordinary way by which the ancient Christians did receive their baptism. 'Tis a great want of prudence as well as of HONESTY to Tcfusc to grant to an adversary what is certainly TRUE, and may be proved so. It creates a jealousy of all the rest that one says." — " The custom of the Christians in the near succeeding times [to the apostles] being more largely and particularly delivered in books, is KNOWN to have been generally or ordinarily a total immer- sion." Hist, of Inf. Bapt., Pt. II. ch. ix. §2. And its Defence, p. 131.
Professor Campbell. " I have heard a disputant, in defiance of etymology and use, maintain that the word rendered in the New Testa- ment baptize, means more properly to sprinkle than to plunge ; and in DEFIANCE OF ALL ANTiauiTT, that the formcr was the earliest, and — the most general practice in baptizing. One who argues in this manner never fails with persons of knowledge to betray the cause he would defend ,- and though with respect to the vulgar, bold assertions gene- rally succeed as well as argument, and sometimes better ; yet a candid MIND will always disdain to take the help w/falsjehood, even in the support of truth." Lectures on Pulpit Eloquence, Led. x. p. 304.
Edinburgh I^eviewers, " We have rarely met, for example, with
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a moie weak and fanciful piece of reasoning, than that by which Mr. Ewing would persuade us that there is no allusion to the mode by immersion, in the expression ' buried with him in baptism.' Thia point ought to be franklt admitted, and indeed cannot be denied with any show of reason." In Mr. Carson's Answer, as before, p. 40.
7. How long was immersion continued as the general practice among all Christians ?
Bishop BossuET. " We are able to make it appear, by the acts of Councils, and by the ancient Rituals, that for THIRTEEN HUN- DRED YEARS, baptism was thus [by immersion] administered through- out the whole church, as far as possible." In StenneWs Answer to Uussen, p. 176.
Stackhouse. "Several authors have shown, and proved, that this immersion continued, as much as possible, to be used for thjrteex HUNDRED TEARS after Christ." Hist, of the Bible, P. 8, p. J234. See also Mr. Whitby, cited at p. 47.
8. At what period, and on what accounts, was the cus- tom of pouring, or sprinkling, first introduced ?
Ansiver. There is no earlier record, that Mr. Wall could discover, than in the case of Novatian, about the middle of the third century. This man while unbaptized, as Euscbius records, (Eccles. Hist. L, VI. c. 43,) " fell into a dangerous disease, and because he was very likfi to die, was baptized in the bed where he lay," {iv KXivri Tnoi ;;(iid-ivr:t, j. e. sprinkled over in bed; or water poured all over him, the word signi- ties,) " if that might be termed baptism," Novatian recovered ; and by the following circumstance we have remarkably preserved the view which the Christian church generally took of bis baptism, 7'he See of Rome became vacant, A. D. 251. Two per,sons were ch.osen to succeed, namely Cornelius, ' chosen by the major part,' and this Nova- tian, in a ' schismatical way.' Cornelius writes a long letter to Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, in which he describes the case of Novatian, and says, (as Mr. Wall translates it,) " that Novatian came not canonically to his order of priesthood, much less was he capable of being chosen bisliop:" Let the reader mark the reason assigned, " For that all thf. " CLERGT, and a great ?rANT of the Laity, were against his being "chosen Presbyter; because it was not lawful, (tbey said) for any one "that had been baptized in his bed, [Greek, as aho\e, poured aver,] as "he had been, to be admitted to any office of the clergy." WaWs Hist. Pait II. ch. ix. § 2.
Here is the first recorded case of affusion, either pouring or sprink- ling, for baptism ; and here we have a serious objection taken against the person so baptized on account of it; an objection in which "all the clergy" were united. What was the objection 1 Was it against his situation, as being sick in bed T or against the mode of the ordinance ? This is important to be ascertained. I answer, It was against both ; for soon after this time these two olijoctions against such a baptism were exhibited. 1. There was an objection against a person sick, because, as the Council of Neoca^sarea allirmed by the 12th canon, 11* o2
78 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. []12G
" He that is baptized, when he is sick, ought not to be made a priest, for his conjing to the faith is not voluntaut, but from necessity." And, 2. As to the mode, while Novatian was Uving, one Magnus sub- mits this question to Cyprian — " An habendi sint Christiani legitimi, eo quod aqua sulutari non loti sunt, sed perfusi ?" i. e. " Whether they are to be ksteemed iurht Chkistians, who are not washed in the water, but only sprinkled .'" Cyprian answers, that the baptism was to be esteemed good, " necessitate cogente," " necessity compelling to it, and God granting his indulgence." I leave the reader to reflect on the force of this evidence.
From this period, A. D. 250, onward, sprinkling was permitted, but only in a case of necessity, and in prospect of death ; originating in a false view of the necessity of the ordinance to salvation. " France (says Mr. Wall) seems to have been the first country in the world where baptism by affusion was used ordinarily to persons in health." This affusion, or pouring, in the church of Rome, was first tolerated in the eighth century, while immersion was still the established law of the church ; and so things stood for several hundred years. In the six- teenth century, pouring was generally adopted. The Rituals of that church prove this to a demonstration. See Robinson's History of Bap- tism, p. 525 ; and Bishop Bossuet, just cited.
The Church of England held the original practice of dipping longer than those of the continent. " Perfunduntur (says Erasmus, A. D. 1530,) apud nos, merguntur apud Anglos." i. e. " With us (the Dutch) they have the water poured on them ; in England they are dipped." The Rubric to this day instructs the clergyman, " he shall dip in the water discreetly and warily ;" but it allows an exception, "but if they shall certify that the child is weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it." The Catechism requires the youth to express the form of baptism only as by immersion, " Water wherein the person is baptized." In the early history of this church " the offices or liturgies (says Mr. Wall) did ALL ALONG ... enjoin dipping, without any mention of pour- ing or sprinkling." In A. D. 1549, first appeared the exception for ' weak' children : four years afterward the word thrice, after the order to dip, was omitted. Sprinkling began to prevail about A. D. 1550, and "within the time of half a century, from A. D. 1550 to 1600, pre- VAiLK!) TO BE THE MORE GENEUAL ; as it is uow almost the only way of baptizing." Mr. Waifs Hist, of Inf. Bap. Pt. II. ch. ix. § 2.
9. In what proportion of the Christion world has im- mersion been continued down to the present lime ?
Ansiver. Mn. Wall. " What has been said of this custom of pouring or sprinkling water in the ordinary use of baptism, is to be understood only in reference to these western parts of Europe: for it is used ordinarily nowhere else. The Greek church does still use immersion ; and so do all other Christians in the world except the Latins. All those nations of Christians that do now, or formerly did submit to the authority of the Bishop of Rome, do ordinarily baptize their infants by pouring or sprinkling ; hut ail other Christians in the world who never owned the Pope's usurped power, bo and kver did
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DTP their infants in the ordinary use. ... Ail the Christians in Aaia, ail in Africa, and about one-third part of Europe, are of the last sort." Hist, of Inf. Bap. Part 11. eh. ix. p. 37G. Ed. 3.
Does my reader wish me to proceed any further 1 To my mind the subject is perfectly settled ; because the evidence adduced before us has been, not in criticisms upon words, but in plain historical facts ; facts admitted by every Christian writer that has examined the subject ; and, as they include the practice of the apostoUc age, they are decisive upon the subject.
The contention, therefore, that the word Baptize has other senses beside to immerse, and that the prepositions rendered into and out of in the baptism of the eunuch, may be rendered to and from the water; all this is perfect quibbling and trifling when the fact is conceded, that Jesus, and his apostles, and the primitive Christians, observed and authorized the ordinance in this form. Thus the late editor of Calmet, after warmly contending against the views of the Baptists, adds, " Here again, I say, let me not be misunderstood ; I believe that immersion was practised by John." Why, granting this, he grants me oil: for if this was the form in which ' the Lord of glory' was baptized, and what he authorized, I want no more.
To a person disposed to question the evidence for immersion, I would beg to propose the following inquiries, founded upon those historical facts briefly given in the foregoing pages, and which he may more fully examine in the works I have referred to : —
1. How came it to pass, that the early Christian writers expressed the rite of baptism by such Greek and Latin words and phrases (ex- clusive of baptizo) as signify, to be plunged; to be buried .• to be dipped; to be immersed; to be let down in the ivater, and to be encompassed by the water on every side ?
2. How came it to pass, that when affusion or sprinkling was had recourse to, as an expedient in prospect of death, and the person re- covered, he was not deemed so properly baptized as to be admissible to any sacred office ?
3. How came it to pass, that the fathers should name, as suitable places for baptizing, " the sea, a pool, a river, a fountain, a lake, a chan- nel, the Jordan, the Tiber ;" and that the baptism may be alike " in" any one of them 7
4. How came it to pass, that by the authority of the * Canons Aposto- lical,' if a Bishop or Presbyter baptized by any other way than immer- sion, yea, trine-immersion, he should be deposed!
5. How comes it to pass, that those Christians with whom the com- mand of the Lord Jesus to baptize is in their native tongue, have, in all ages of their history, observed this mode 1
6. How comes it to pass, that the ancient rituals of those churches in which pouring and sprinkling now prevail, solemnly enjoined, or do still enjoin, the mode of immersion ?
7. How came it to pass, that the whole Christian world, however afterward divided, uniformly observed immersion, except in sickness, for TiiiUTEKN hundred ycars 1
80 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [128
Now, though the evidence I have produced upon these points from ancient and modern writers be brief, which it would have been much easier to have extended than to have thus compressed, it is beyond doubt, that ivhat the above inquiries state, are
INCONTROVERTIBLE HISTORICAL FACTS.
And if the New Testament contained no decisive evidence on the subject, the above facts afford a most indisputable proof that immer- sion was the original, and if so the divinely authorizkb mode; and consequently that which should be invariably and unaltera- bly observed to the end of time ; for who can alter what Christ ordains 1
APPENDIX, PART III.
On the Spiritual Design of Baptism.
That this sacred ordinance was intended by the Great Head of the Church to be symbolical, and to teach by an expressive and visible sign what the gospel taught by the word preached, is a truth too evi- dent in the New Testament to be doubted ; and that the particular form or mode of it was to be indicative of some important truths, and that its observance was to have a beneficial influence on the Christian church, are equally clear. We liave now in few words to state, what the ordinance was intended to teach, what to exhibit, and what practi- cal influence it shouid have on the church of Christ.
1. It was to teach the S!nfulnesf< of man, and the necessity oi puri- fication from sin, in order to eternal life. These tr\i«hs are implied in Peter's words, when exhorting to the ordinance, "Repent and he bap- tized for the remission of sins ;" and in Ananias', " Arise, and be bap- tized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Act* ii. S'S. xxii. 16.
2. Baptism was intended to teach and to signify the Christian's entire abandonment of a Ife (f impiety, and his entrance upon a new life of devotion and dedication to God. The metaphors of a diath and burial express the former, and a resurrection the latter. Hence the apostle, RoMu vi. 8, declares the Christian "dead with Christ;" and not only dead, but " buried with him -^ and here Christ's own institu- tion is introduced to confirm the apostle's doctrine; " therefore we aro buried with him by baptism into death," &c. See the Scripturen at p. 45.
3. Baptism was intended to exhibit our Lord's overiohelming sufferings — 'J^o this most interesting circumstance our blessed Re- deemer does himself allude in affecting terms. See pp. 22, 23.
4. No less does baptism pre-represent what the (i^hristian anticipates as the destiny of his own human nature, when he shall descend hke
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his Redeemer into the grave, and at his Saviour's second coming be raised to glory. So the apo-stle, " Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all." In no way but immersion does the ordinance answer this and the foregoing designs.
5. And, finally, this sacred rite, in reference to its subjects, appears evidently designed to form a Ihie of separation between the world and the church. A baptized person, in the primitive age, was considered as having come out from the ungodly, and assumed the character and profession of a follower of Christ. " As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." Gal. iii. 27. Just as when a person, entering the service of an earthly prince, puts on the attire by which the servants of that prince are distinguished, so the Christian, by baptism, puts on, as a garment, an open profession of his Lord and Master ; declaring that he is no longer his own, or the servant of sin and Satan, but bought with a price, and now surrenders himself to him that loved him and died for him. This entire separation of the church from the world our Saviour most plainly taught in John xv. 19. xvii. 6, 9, 20, 21, and xviii. 36. As did also the apostles; see, as an example, 2 Cor. vi. 14 to 18. In none but believers can this practical use of baptism be realized.
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.
In closing my little work I must Request my reader*s attention to a few thoughts, suggested by the general objections of opponents to the practice for which I have contended ; and add my reasons, in a summary form, for abiding strictly by that practice.
I. Objections to exclusive Believers' Baptism. 1. In the form of objection to the principles of the Bap- tists, relative to this ordinance, it has been remarked that
* The MAJORITY of Christians, with whom are associated an immense number of great, good, and learned men, have held, and do hold, the opposite views ;* and (it is asked)
* Can they all be wrong V
Answer. I admit that a large majority of the professed Christian inhabitants of the world, with whom are joined many most eminent writers, are against us. But is a majority never wrong, — never found on the side of error 1 Let my reader, whoever he may be, ask * Whe- ther the majority of professed Christians do not think differently from him upon some equally important points 1 and how little does he think of the consequence of numbers upon those points !' The Chinese plead their majority against Christians ; the Catholics against Pro- testants ; «fec, <Scc., but who feels the force of an argument in the plea 1 — And " as to great men and great names (says Mr. A. Clarke) we
82 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [130
find them enrolled and arranged on the side of all controversies;" and I will allow my opponent to reckon them up by hundreds, or thou- sands, and place them all on tlie side of infant baptism ,- — I will take and place on the other side, Christ and his apostles, and then I appeal to my reader, 'Who has the bkst suppokt, though my number be but ' a little Hock' in the comparison 1
Now I must be allowed to ixsisx vvos it that I have Christ and the apostles with me, giving their sanction to believers' baptism ; and all will admit, that their sanction is not to bk fouxu on the opposite side. Much then as I venerate the great, good, and learned men referred to, as not they, but Christ is my Lord and Master, and is to be my sole Judge at the last day, I hesitate not to quit my connexion v^'ith any majority, or with any particular eminent men, supposing I am found in a minority, if Chkist is with me thkhk,
2. It has also been objected ' That our principles are of recent origin ; and were unknown previous to the appear- ance of certain enthusiasts in Qerrnany, at the time of the reformation,'
Answtr, Our principles arc as old as Christianity. We acknow- ledge no founder but Christ. With enthusiasts in Germany, or in any age or country, we have no connexion, and our forefathers never had. Enthusiasts may be designated by the same name, but that proves Nothing. — Persons holding our distinctive principle, i. e. ' the baptism of believers only' have appeared in all ages of the Christian era. From Christ to nearly the end of the second century there were "so others ; at least, if there were any, their history is a blank.* After infant bap- tism was introduced, many did not receive it, and many opposed it.
How else can we account for the case of Ambrose, Jerome, Augus- tine, and others, who, says Bishop Taylor, " were born of Christian parents, and yet not baptized until the full age of man, and more ]"■(• How else can we account for the pressing exhortations found in early writings, addressed to professed Christians, to come to baptism ?4: How, especially, can we otherwise account for the awful anathemas pronounced at different times by the dominant party, upon those that denied infant baptism ?
If ray reader has opportunity to make himself acquainted with the history oi the numerous bodies of Christians which appeared at differ- ent periods, while popery was dominant in Europe, he will find that there w^re many mtriads of persoxs, who, for several centuries before the Reformation, lifted up their voice against that spiritual domi-
* It may be proper to slate, that Mr. Wall thought that there was a passage in Irenaens, in the second century, favorable to infant baptism. " Christ," says Ire- naeus, " came to«aye all persons by himself; all, I mean, who by him (renascuu- tur in Deunj) ar« regenerated to God; infants, and little onrs, and youths, and elder persons." Now, if the word regenerated had no other sense than baptized, and Cnrist came to save only thope who received that ordinance, and by it, then this passage would l)e, what Mr. Wall calls it, " the first express mention of infant baptism." But as it is, it is beg^iug the question to cite it at all on the subject.
t Dissuasive from Popery, Pt. II. p. 117.
X See Basil's" Ora/to Extiovt. ad litipt. ia Mr. Wall's Hist. Pi. I. ch. xii. § 3.
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nation ; and that those several sects held the distinctive principle of the Baptists, given above; or in their own words, as recorded by Mr. MosHEiM, " That no persons whatever were to be baptized before they came to the full use of their reason :" " Because to all infants, that know nothing of faith, in whom there can be no desire of regeneration, or confession of faith, &c., the will, faith, and confession of another, seem not in the least to appertain." Eccles. Hist. Cent. XII. ch. v. § 7. and m Stennett's Answer to Russen, p. 84.
Such was the avowed sentiment of the followers of GtrxnuLPHCS in Italy ; of the Bkrengarians in France ; of the Paterikes in the Dutchy of Milan ; of the Petrobrusians and Henricians in Lan- guedoc and Provence; and of the followers of Arnold, of Brescia, who suflered at Rome, A. D. 1155. — All these are sometimes included in the general name of Waldenses, and their history may be traced backward from the time of the reformation through several centuries. "Some of the popish writers own (says President Edwards) that tbat people never submitted to the church of Rome. One says ' The heresy of the Waldenses is the oldest heresy in the world.' It is supposed that this people betook themselves to this secret place among the moun- tains, to hide themselves from the severity of the heathen persecutions which were before Constantine the Great. And thus the woman fled into the wilderness from the face of the serpent. Rev. xii. 6 and 14." {History of Redemption, Period III. Ft. ii. 1.) To this agrees Beza, who says, "As for the Waldenses, I may be permitted to call them the seed of the primitive and purer church." On baptism their confession is given in these words — " We believe that in the ordinance of baptism, the water is the visible and external sign, which repiesents to us — the renovation of our minds through Christ Jesus, and by this ordinance we are received into the holy congregation of God's people, niKviousLy PROFEssixR A>'D DECLARixo ouu FAITH, and chaugc of life." See Jones' Hist, of this people. Vol. II. pp. 49, 50, 70. 2d Ed.
To the Waldenses succeeded the Mensonites ; i. e. the Baptists, or Anabaptists, as they are sometimes contemptuously called, at this time an extensive body in various nations on the continent of Europe. Thus, the learned Mr. Mosueim says, " The true origin of that sect which acquired the denomination of Anabaptists. .. and derived that of Mennonitcs from the famous man to whom they owe the greatest part of their present felicity, is hidden in the depths of AXTiauixr .. . The Mennonites are not entirely in error when they boast of their descent from the Waldenses, Petrobrusians, and other ancient sects, who are usually considered as witnesses of the truth in the times of general darkness and superstition." Eccles. Hist. Cent. XVI. Sect. III. pt. ii. ch. iii. My reader may judge from this of the nature of tlic objection as to the recent origin of Baptist principles.*
* In reference to Great Britain, in particular, during the first cenuirir?, it ma^ be affirmed, that from the first introduction of Clirisiianity into it, until Popn Gre- gory (A. D. 596,) sent over Austin to this country wiih a nun. I.e.- of monlfs to con- vert the people to the Catholic faith, wo have good reason for Ijolieviiig that believers' baptism alone prevailed in this country ; fir Austin, finding diffi rencfs to exist between his viows and ihe Briiisii ('hrisiians, called their niinistfrs {.•>- gether, and proposed "Three things," in order to their having his favor and pro-
84 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [^132
3. On the mode, it is objected ' That it is more trouble- some, and inconvenient than the usual mode of sprinkling; and quite a cross to submit to it.'
Answer. I admit this, as certainly the feeling of human nature : but, I beg to inquire, Is the trouble and inconvenience too great, and the crose loo heavy to be borne, if I have proved that Christ sanctioned that mode by his command and his example? Who, as a Christian, if present on the banks of Jordan when Christ was baptized, would refuse or object to be the next person to be baptized after Clirist, and in the same way ? And if then, when the Holy Spirit was visibly descending, and the Father's voice was heard, you would cheerfully have entered the streams of Jordan, is not the ordinance the same now, equally binding, endearing, and as much under the eye and the bless- ing of heaven \ Without doubt : and surely your Redeemer has done enough, and suffered enough for sinners, to entitle him to this act of obedience from them, supposing it does give them a measure of trouble, and inconvenience, and a cross to bear after him. Hear his own words, — " He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." Matt. x. 38.
4. But, it is added, ' The quantify of water can matter nothing ; any more than the quantity of wine or bread in the Lord's supper.'
Answer. This is granted, providing only there be a sufficient quantity to fulfil Christ's command. It is not the quantity that is con- tended for, but a conformity to the pattern of Christ ; and any dejjarture from that pattern renders the act no longer an act of obedience to him.
5. But, objects another, ' I have, I hope, received t!ie baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is the thing signified ; and I do not see the necessity of submitting to this rite, as it cannot take away sin, or do me any good.'
Answer. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is made, by the apostle Peter, the very reason why those that received it should receive this ordinance — " Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which havk RECKivEn the Holy Ghost as well as we ]" (See p. 35.) And as to the good the ordinance can do, and its inability to take away sin, I again refer to him who had no sin to take away, and needed no good from religious services, yet travelled a long journey ' to be baptized,' and silenced every objection against it by affirming, " Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."
lection. The second of these things was, " That yb givb Christbndome to CHILDREN," i. e. that ihey should baptize them: good proof that they did not do s t before. And it is known that Pope Gregory, above referred to, decreed as follows : — " Let all young children be baptized, lis they ought to be, according to the tradi- tions of the Fathers." What an evidence is this of the omission of infant ba(>- tism, and the kind of authority by which it was authorized and urged! Seo Ivimey's Hist, of the English Baptists, Vol. 1. r'P- 42—45.
The reader should also be informed, that infant connnunion began about the same time as infant baptism, and attended it lill alwut A. D. 1000. It was admi- nistered for the same reason, i. e. on account of its saving efficacy. In the East it iff still continued.
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II. Reasons for the Baptism of Believers only.
1. Because I am quite suke that I have plain Scripture autho- rity for believers' baptism ; but to authorize the baptism of infants not a word, in inspiration, is to be found.
2. Because the baptism of believers is in harmony with the doctrines of the gospel, and the nature of Christ's kingdom, which 'is not of this world,' but spiritual, and extends no further amongst men than FAITH and Christian experience extend. John i. 11 — 13.
3. Because baptism, being an act of obedience to Christ, must have Christ's command, or authority ; the baptism of believers only has this ; (see p. 26.) " Can that be obedience," inquires Mr. Baxter, "which hath no command? Who knows what will please God but himself: and has he not told us what he expects from us ?"
4. Because the doctrine of infant baptism, namely, ' that children by it are brought into the covenant of grace, which is the covenant of re- demption, or ' the benefits of that covenant sealed to them,' is opposed to all the leading doctrines of the gospel, whether according to the views of Arminians or Calvinists. What, in this case, becomes of the doc- trine of God's Election ? of the necessity of Repentance ? of the New Birth ? of Conversion ? of Faith in Christ 1 and of Justification through Faith ? &c. «fec. All these are superseded by baptism, if the above doctrine be true.
5. Because of the dangerous practical tendency of infant baptism. If children, advancing into life, believe the above doctrine, they are likely to ref^t satisfied in the * benefits sealed,' and without any further concern, without faith or piety, live in the hypocrite's hope, and perish with ' a lie in their right hand !'
6. Because infant baptism goes to unite the world with the church of Christ. Have not the vilest infidels in Christendom received ' the seal of the covenant, and been grafted into the church, the body of Christ V How grossly absurd ! How lamentable, that they should have cause to pour contempt upon Christianity by the errors and follies of its professors !
7. Because I would not have the impression on my mind while in this life, or the remembrance at the Bar of future Judgment, that I had ♦ reversed' Christ's order, which is the case in inf mt baptism, (see Si- meon, p. 25,) or altered the mode which his wisdom ordained ; pre- ferring to follow my Saviour's plain and endeared example, and to abide by his sacred and authoritative instructions.
FINAL ADDRESS TO THE READER.
I WILL now imagine that you, my reader, are convinced that I have the truth with me on this subject : allow me, then, in behalf of Christ, to exhort you practically to attend to this sacred institution. Do you
VOL. II.— 12 H
86 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [134
ask, Wliat is prerequisite to baptism ? I answer, these three things .- (I.) To see and feel that you are a sinner, and need the remission of sins, Acts ii. 38. (2.) That you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and rely on him as your only Saviour, Acts viii. 37. (3.) That you feel willing to forsake all ungodliness, and to devote your future life to the service and glory of your Redeemer ; willing, and not ashamed, to put on Christ, and follow him to the skies. Rom. vi. 4 ; Gal. iii. 27.
If these things are found in you, and you are convinced of the will of Christ, delay not doing his will. " If ye love me, (said he,) keep nty commandments." Do not entertain frivolous excuses.
1. Do not say ' you are too young.' At twelve years of age your Lord appeared in public, doing the will of his Father ; if you have reached that age, it is high time to commence a life of dedication to Christ. Go, youthful reader, and follow the Lamb in the morning of life. Who knows but your sun may go down at noon ! His promise is, " They that seek me early shall find me."
2. Do not say ' you are too old.' If you have far exceeded the age above mentioned, and yet hear the Saviour's voice, ^follow me,^ you are not too old to obey his endeared and binding commands.
3. Do not say ' what good can it do you V Behold your Lord enter- ing the waters of Jordan ! Are you wiser or better than he 1 Beware that you reflect not on his wisdom.
4. Does the ordinance appear a cross to you ] and especially so, as it is something that does not fall in with the taste Sind fancy of the world ? Thank God for that. Christ never intended his religion, or his ordinances, to suit the fancies of unregenerate men ; and the more objectionable this ordinance is to such persons, so much more effectual is it as a line of demarcation between the world and his church, as the Lord Jesus intended. And as to the cross, — do you think it is too heavy 1 Behold him passing through the baptism of his inconceivable sufferings ^or you / Behold him carrying the cross upon which he was suspended for many hours ; and thereon, by his dying pains, work- ing out eternal redemption for you ! And will you, turning from these unparalleled scenes, say ' the cross of baptism is too heavy for
To bear his name — His cross to bear,
Our highest honor this ! Who nobly suffers now for him.
Shall reign with him in bliss.
1353 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 87
APPENDIX, PART IV.
Note on 1 Cor. vii. 14, prepared by John L. Dagg, late Pas- tor OF the Fifth Baptist Church, Philadelphia, approved
AND published BY THE DIRECTORS OF THE BaPTIST GeNERAL
Tract Society.
In the controversy about infant baptism it is agreed on both sides, that none should be baptized but those w^ho have a scriptural right to the ordinance. It is moreover agreed, that all believers have a scriptural right. The issue of the controversy depends therefore upon the decision of this point. Do the holy Scriptures any where allow the right of being baptized to some who cannot claim it as believers, namely, the unbelieving infant children of a believer? In conducting the controversy to its issue, the Paedobaptists, who affirm that such infants have this right from Scripture, are bound to prove their affirmation. By no rule of fair reasoning are the Baptists bound to prove the negative. Nevertheless the negative can be proved ; and, strange as it may seem, it can be proved by this very text, which has been so frequently and so confidently urged in support of the Paedobaptist cause, and has been relied on by many as the chief pillar of that cause. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit, with which truth may at all times successfully defend herself; but error, awkward and imbe- cile, is in danger of committing suicide, when essaying to use this effective weapon.
Before we proceed to prove what has just been proposed, it may be necessary to admonish the reader that if, in his judgment, we should fail in our attempt, still our cause will have lost nothing. The laws of controversy do not require us to explain this text. We can readily prove that the doctrine of infant baptism is not in it ; and when we have done this, nothing more can be demanded of us. A Paedobaptist might adduce Rev. xiii. 18, to prove his doctrine, and then call upon us to explain the mystery of this text, laugh at our attempts, and triumph at our failures, as if liis cause were thereby established : yet every one would perceive his triumph to be vain, and that a text does not prove infant baptism merely because we <*annot explain it.
Although Paedobaptists have generally agreed in suppos-
88 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [136
ing, that the holiness of the children mentioned in this text (1 Cor. vii. 14) refers to church membership, and ex- presses either the fact of their having been baptized or their right to that ordinance ; yet they have differed consider- ably in their attempts to adjust the other parts of the verse to this sense. The truth is, that no such adjustment is possible. If holiness means a right to baptism, then the unbelieving parent, who is expressly said to be sanctified or holy, ought to be baptized as well as his children. It is therefore doing violence to the passage to press it into the cause of infant baptism. According to the plan of our author, the testimony of a paidobaptist writer shall be given on this point.
Macknight. " Our translators seem here to have un- derstood the terms sanctified, unclean^ and holy, in a fede- ral sense, which, indeed, is the common opinion. But, first, it is not true in a federal sense, that the unbelieving party in a marriage is sanctified by the believing party ; for, evidently, no one hath a right to the blessings of the gospel covenant by the faith of those to whom they are married. In the second place, it is as little true, that the children, procreated between believing and unbelieving parents, become unclean by the separation of the parents, and clean by their continuing together, as the apostle asserts, if by unclean we under- stand exclusion from the covenant, and hy clean, admission into it. For the title which children have to be members of the covenant, depends not on their parents living to- gether, but on the faith of the believing parent."
Note, in loc. Baptists have generally coincided with Mr. Pengilly, in the interpretation which he has given of this text. Much respect is due to it, because it has obtained the general suffrage of our learned men, and also of learned Paedobaptists, as he has shown by quotations from their writings. Yet against this interpretation the following objections may be urged. — 1. Lawfully begotten is, to say the least, an unusual sense of the term holy. 2. The unlawfulness of matri- monial converse, after the conversion of one parent, would not prove that the children, before that event, had been unlawfully begotten. 3. Nor is it clear that it would prove this with respect even to the younger children, since such converse might be unlav/ful as against ceremonial purity.
1373 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 89
and yet not unlawful as against the seventh commandment. 4. To prove that the parents are lawfully married, because their children are lawfully begotten, is to prove a thing by itself. There is another view of this Scripture, which we consider more satisfactory than any of the preceding. We shall attempt to lay it before our readers.
The Jews considered all Gentiles to be unclean, and thought it unlawful for a Jew to be in the house, keep company, or eat with, or touch a Gentile. By some means, possibly from the influence of Judaizing teachers, the church at Corinth seems to have been agitated with the question whether the same rule ought not to be established to regulate the intercourse of the members of the church with other persons ; that is, whether the church ought not to decide, that all who were without were unclean to them who were within ; just as Gentiles were unclean to Jews ; and that therefore it was inconsistent with Christian purity to dwell, keep company, or eat with, or to touch them. While this question was undergoing discussion in the church, it was perceived that it involved a very important case. Some of their members were married to unbelievers, and if such a rule should be established, these members would be compelled to separate from their unbelieving husbands or wives. Although the lawfulness of the mar- riage was not questioned, yet it would be unlawful for a believing husband to dwell with his wife, until God had converted her. The church resolved, probably after much discussion of the question, to write to the apostle respect- ing it. This letter he had received, as appears from the first verse of this chapter. On the general question of intercourse with unbelievers he treats in the fifth chapter, and decides that, to keep company or eat with persons who make no pretension to religion is not unlawful, and that, were all such persons to be esteemed unclean, and their touch polluting. Christians must needs go out of the world. On the particular case of those members of the church who were married to unbelievers the apostle treats in the chapter before us. He decides in ver. 12 and 13 that they may lawfully dwell together, and in ver. 14, for the conviction and silencing of any members of the church, who might object to his decision, he in substance says, the unbelieving husband is not unclean, so that his ivife may
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90 SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. [^138
not lawfully dwell with him : the unbelieving loife is not unclean, so that her husband may not lawfully dwell with her. If they are unclean, then your children are uncleany and not one parent in the ivhole church must dwell with or touch his children, until God shall convert them ; and thus Christians will be made to sever the ties that bind parents to their children, and to throw out the offspring of Christian parents into the ungodly world from their very birth, without any provision for their protection^ support, or religious education.
It will be perceived in the preceding interpretation that the phrase your children is talven in a different sense from tliat which it obtains in any of the interpretations usually offered. It is here supposed to refer to the whole church. Had the apostle designed to speak of those children only, who have one parent a believer and the other an unbeliever, he would have said (Tatv:t mtZv) their children, instead of (tbiv* y^uwy,) your children. In addressing the church, and in giving general precepts, he uses the pronouns ye and you. See preceding chapter throughout, and verses I and 5 of this chapter. But in ver. 8. where he gives directions applicable to particular cases, although he introduces the phrase, "I say to the unmarried and widows," he makes reference to these persons, not by the pronoun you, but them: "It is good (or them to abide even as 1." The same mode of speaking he continues to use as far down as to the verse in question: "let them marry, — let /lim not put her away, — ^let her not leave him." After the same manner he would have said, " else were their children un- clean," had he intended only the children of such mixed cases of marriage as are referred to in the preceding part of the verse. What further confirms this opinion, is, that in the original text the substantive verb is in the present tense ; *' your children are unclean," — a mode of speaking more suited for the stating of a parallel than a dependant case.
The general principles of the preceding interpretation fall in precisely with the course of the apostle's argument commenced in the 5th chapter. When these principles have been established, it is not of vital importance to the sense of the passage to determine the translation of the preposition «. Many have translated it to as it is in ^9
139 J SCRIPTURE GUIDE TO BAPTISM. 91
very next verse. This sense accords well with our inter- pretation. The unbelieving husband is sanctified to the w^ife,just as it is said in Titus i. 15, *■'• unto the pure all things are pure." But perhaps the more literal rendering, m, will give the apostle's sense more accurately. While both parents lived in unbelief they were unclean to them- selves, and to each other : "unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and con- science are defiled." Titus i. 15. According to the Jewish rules respecting ceremonial cleanness, the conversion of one party would not render the other party holy. But in gospel ceremonies it is different. By the abrogation of the Jewish ceremonial law, and by the conversion of the wife, the unbelieving husband (hyisLo-Tsu) has become holy^ not in himself, but (svtm ywcuKi) in the wife. That the Jews considered Gentiles unclean as stated above, may be proved from various passages of Scripture. See Acts x. 28, xi. 3. John xviii. 28. Gal. ii. 12. Mr. Adam Clarke states in his note on John xviii. 28, " The Jews considered even the touch of a Gentile as a legal defilement."
It may now be asked, where is the proof which we pro- pose to draw from this text against infant baptism ? We have already proved that it makes nothing for it. On the contrary, it is clearly implied, in the apostle's argument, that all the children of the Corinthian Christians had no nearer relation to the church than the unbelieving husband of a believing wife. He declares that their cases are pa- rallel; and that rules of intercourse, whicli would require the believing husband to separate from his unbelieving wife, would require believing parents to separate from their children. But there is no conclusiveness in this argument, if the children had been consecrated to God in baptism, and brought within the pale of the church : for then the children would stand in a very different relation to the church and to their parents from that of the unbelieving husband or wife. Therefore, unless we charge the apostle with arguing most inconclusively, infant baptism and infant church membership were wholly unknown to the Corinthian church, and if to the Corinthian church, unquestionably to all the churches of those times.
Sec also Tract No. 44, page 24. THE END.
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